Save the Last Dance
by Vi908
Summary: When Bella moves to Forks, the last thing she expects is to have any fun, but when she meets Alice and Rosalie, she finds she is completely mistaken. Then, there is their gorgeous brother, Edward, who wont quit bothering her about something in her past.
1. New Friends, New Life

Hi! Just a little note before you start reading this, I was up watching TV late one night when the idea for this story hit me and I just new I had to write it. I would really appreciate it if you kind people out there would please review for me and leave me some positive feedback so I can know if I should go on with this story or not. This first chapter is basically just an introduction chapter and not really hitting the real story yet, so just hang in there with me please! And the characters in this story are going to seem a little ooc because, well, they are. That's just they way that I want to write them, especially Bella. She just needs a little bit more self confidence and not so much clumsiness!

Oh and by the way, I don't own Twilight. :(

* * *

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

My hand slammed onto the alarm clock. How could it possibly be 6:30 already? It seemed like I went to sleep five minutes ago, but no matter how tired I felt, I forced myself out of my warm, comfortable bed, grabbed my toiletry bag and went to take a cold shower to wake myself up. Today was the day. The day I would start my first day of school at Forks High School, and I wanted to at least try to make a good first impression. I had just moved here from Phoenix to live with my dad, Charlie, Forks' police chief, and it was such a big difference.

Forks, a quiet, small town in the uppermost part of the Olympic Peninsula, was probably the wettest town in the continental U.S. and for that reason, and many others, I hated it. I hadn't been to Forks since I was five, when my parents divorced and my mom took off with me. Sure, I had gotten a couple of postcards, some birthday and Christmas presents, and an occasional phone call from Charlie, but overall we weren't very close. I hadn't actually seen the man since I was five years old, but everything changed six months ago.

After my shower, I quickly blow dried and straightened my hair, and put on a white eyelet top with a pair of dark skinny jeans and some silver flats. I threw on a little bit of eyeliner and mascara, and I was ready. I was usually a pretty low maintenance person; it only took me about thirty minutes to get ready, but I did like to look like I had at least put a little bit of effort into my appearance.

Heading out the door, I grabbed a granola bar, said goodbye to Charlie, and picked up my car keys on the counter. My car, a sixteenth birthday present from my step-dad, Phil, who plays baseball for the Jacksonville Suns, is my baby. It is a red 2008 VW Jetta and I love it more than anything else in this world. I brought it with me when I moved from Phoenix.

Forks High School didn't really look, or feel, like a school. There was no three story building, no big football field out back, no security cameras looking around. From the distance, it just looked like a collection of small houses hidden behind the trees, but once I got closer I noticed a small sign next to the entrance. I was a little early, but it didn't matter. At least I would be able to get a good parking spot.

I went into the small front office to pick up my schedule. The receptionist at the front smiled at me sympathetically. I knew what she was thinking, what they would all be thinking. _So this is Chief Swan's long lost daughter, huh? Poor girl. She must be so miserable._

"You must be Isabella, right?" The lady smiled at me. I cringed slightly when she said Isabella. No one called me that, not even my mom when she was angry. It was just too proper, too…prim for me. I had a feeling that Charlie had been telling people that was my name.

"Bella," I corrected her at once, but then I added a smile to make myself seem a little more congenial.

"Well, I am Mrs. Cope and if you need anything do not hesitate to ask," She smiled. "Now, here's your schedule…"

She handed me my schedule and I looked to see all the classes I would be taking. Spanish, Trigonometry, English, Biology, the same classes I had taken in Phoenix. That was good. I wouldn't be behind hopefully.

"Take this slip to all of your teachers and get them to sign it, then bring it back here at the end of the day," Mrs. Cope kept talking.

"Thanks," I halfheartedly smiled and just walked away.

People had started to arrive now and before I knew it, I was being stared at. According to my dad, there were only three hundred and fifty-seven-- now fifty-eight including me-- students at Forks High School, and I knew that at a school where everyone knows everyone, I would be the new girl, the fresh meat, a freak. Some people were openly pointing while others were at least attempting to be polite by just occasionally glancing at me, but no one had come up to me yet until a blonde-haired, blue eyed boy started walking my way.

"Hi, I'm Mike Newton," He smiled. He probably thought he was being cool, coming to talk to the weird new girl and all. "You must be Isabella."

I groaned. Now, I was a hundred percent sure that Charlie had been calling me Isabella behind my back, " Bella, please. Call me Bella."

"Okay, Bella," He smiled. Mike seemed like a pretty nice guy. He showed me around the school, introduced me to a couple of his friends, and even promised to save me a seat at lunch, which if you've never been the new kid at school is a very good thing.

When the bell to go to first period rang, I went of with Jessica, one of Mike's friends, to my English class. Jessica was a short, kind of chubby girl with crazy brown curls that made her seem much taller than she actually was; what Jessica lacked in height, she made up for in hair. She seemed pretty sweet, just a little too talkative for my taste, but we did have three classes together and it was nice to at least know someone walking into a new classroom. I went into my English classroom and walked up to the teahers desk. My teacher, Mrs. Spencer, signed my slip, but not before making me stand up in front of the class and say a little something about myself.

"Um, Hi. My name is Bella Swan…I just moved here from Phoenix, and I like the color blue."

"Thank you, Bella," She said sweetly. "Now, if you will, go take a seat by Alice. Alice, raise your hand, sweetheart."

A pixie-like girl with short, spiky black hair in the third row raised her hand swiftly. She seemed excited that the teacher had decided to seat me next to her.

"Hi, I'm Alice Cullen," She said before I even got the chance to sit down. Her smile lit up her entire face and when she smiled, it would be hard for anyone not to do so also.

"I'm Bella," I smiled back. She seemed really friendly and for that I was extremely grateful. Most of the people I had met today only wanted to meet me because I was new, a new shiny toy for people to fawn over and play with until they got tired, but for some reason, I didn't get that vibe from Alice.

"It's nice to meet you, Bella," The strangest look came across Alice's face. It looked as if she knew something that I didn't. Then, she turned back to her work.

The rest of the class period I spent trying to decipher the look on Alice Cullen's pretty face. I wondered if she had heard stories about my childhood from Charlie, but he had never mentioned the name Cullen before. After a while, I decided that I was just over thinking things and that it probably didn't mean anything at all. The bell rang and I jumped up and grabbed my stuff.

"Bella, what class do you have next?" Alice asked me as she put a book away in her pink backpack.

"Oh, um, Spanish," I looked at my schedule.

"Me, too," She smiled happily. "I'll walk with you."

From that moment on, I knew I would be friends with Alice Cullen.

* * *

When I walked into the lunch room, I saw tiny Alice waving me over to a table far away in the back corner of the cafeteria. I quickly bought my lunch (a salad, an apple, and a bottle of water to drink) and went to sit down.

Also at the table with Alice was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen, and I had no doubt about that. She was a tall, statuesque blonde with hair that flowed down her back perfectly and facial features to die for. She looked like a walking, talking Barbie doll.

"Rosalie, this is Bella, the girl I was telling you about," Alice introduced us. "Bella, this is my sister, Rosalie."

Wow, sisters. They didn't look much a like, but somehow they both ended up in the deep end of the gene pool.

"It's nice to meet you," I said as I took a seat between her and Alice.

"Likewise," She smiled. If any doubts about her being the most beautiful women alive had been in my mind before, when she smiled they were completely gone.

"So, Bella, how's your first day?" Alice bubbled. Her personality was so bright and animated.

"It has been pretty good," I answered truthfully. I had my doubts when I first started, but now that I had met people that actually seemed like good friends it looked like I might have fun here in Forks after all.

"That's nice," Rosalie inputted. " Have you met any cute boys yet?"

"Oh, no. Not real-"

"Well, I did hear that she was talking to Mike Newton this morning and he does look pretty upset that you aren't sitting with him at lunch," Alice giggled.

"Word travels around here fast," Rosalie laughed. "You should come to our house this afternoon, Bella. I am sure our family would love to meet you."

"Well, I wouldn't want to impose."

"Nonsense, Carlisle and Esme will love you," Alice said as she played around with her food. " I am sure the boys will, too."

"The boys?"

"Oh, just our brothers," Rosalie explained. "Emmett, Jasper, and Edward. Emmett's home on break from college, and Jasper just got back from touring Asia."

"And Edward, he's an intern at the hospital where our father works," Alice chimed in.

"Wow, you have a big family," I was kind of jealous. I had always wanted a little brother or a sister to play with as I grew up.

"Yeah, Carlisle and Esme were so good to take us in," Alice sighed. "We're adopted you know."

"Oh," I replied.

"Jasper and I are twins and Alice, Emmett, and Edward are brothers and sister, but Carlisle and Esme took us all in when we were young. They're both really young, but Esme cant have children," Rosalie cleared things up as she got all of her trash together.

"That's really sweet of them," I said.

"Well, it's all settled, then," Alice smiled as we went to throw away our trash at the end of lunch. "We'll meet you in the parking lot when school's out."

The rest of the day went by relatively quickly with only two classes, Biology and Gym. Neither of them I especially cared for, but I didn't hate them. I turned my slip in to the office after school got out.

Alice and Rosalie met me in the parking lot and we agreed that we would all ride in Rosalie's car so that I wouldn't get lost on my way home because apparently they lived pretty far out. Rosalie drove the nicest car in the parking lot a Forks High School, a red BMW M3 convertible. It was really nice, but she couldn't ride with the top down much because it was Forks, the rainiest place in the U.S.

The ride to the Cullen's house mostly consisted of us talking about me and how well I was adjusting to the move from Phoenix to Forks. Alice and Rosalie asked a few questions about my life in Phoenix, but when I answered the questions as vaguely as possible, they got the hint and stopped asking about my life before Forks.

"So, what do you do for fun?" Alice me asked as we drove deeper and deeper into the woods.

"Well, I like to read," Alice and Rosalie just looked at each other.

"No boys? Shopping?" Rosalie looked at me through the rearview mirror.

"Not really," I replied meekly. I hadn't had much fun since, well, six months ago.

"You know what, Bella? We are going to start having some fun," Alice bounced as she went into a long, detailed plan about how we were going to go spend the day in Seattle and get manicures and pedicures.

"Whoa, calm down, Alice," I laughed as Rosalie turned off onto a dirt road that I wouldn't have even noticed if I had been driving.

"We're almost here!" Alice got even more excited, if that was possible. "I can't wait for you to meet everyone."

The Cullen house was unlike anything I had ever seen before. It was like one of those houses you see in old black and white movies only so much better. It was timeless, with a certain charm about it. I didn't get to completely look at because Rosalie pulled her car into a garage somewhere near the back of the house.

As we walked in the house, I could smell something delicious coming probably from the kitchen. Alice and Rosalie led me through a couple of neatly decorated, spacious rooms and finally stopped what I assumed was the living room. It was, to say the least, gorgeous. With high ceilings, a beautiful chandelier, and antique furniture, it was beautiful, but it also had a homey feel to it. I could imagine Alice and Rosalie sitting in here and watching TV or doing whatever they did while at home.

"We're home," Alice called sweetly as she sat her backpack down next to where Rosalie had just sat hers.

Then, a beautiful, dark haired woman walked into the room, smiling and holding her arms open to the two girls. I could only assume that this woman was Esme, their mother.

"Esme, I would like to introduce you to, Bella," Rosalie smiled as she introduced us. "Bella, this is Esme."

"It's wonderful to meet you, Bella," She held out her hand to me. I shook it, but was caught by surprise when her cold hand met mine. It was freezing. "Alice has told me so much about you."

"She has?" I was surprised. How could Alice have told her mother about me if I had only met her that morning?

Alice sensed my confusion, "I called her this afternoon, Bella, before we left to tell her you would be coming."

"Oh," I replied as Esme continued to smile at me with wonderment on her face. I tried to imagine why she was looking at me like that but I couldn't really come up with anything.

"Where are the boys?" Rosalie asked as she gracefully sat down in a nearby chair.

"Emmett and Jasper went out for a bit," Esme replied. "_But_ Edward is upstairs."

Before I knew what was happening, Alice had grabbed me by the arm and was dragging me upstairs quickly to, I assume, meet her brother, Edward. Rosalie stayed downstairs.

"Oh, you're just going to love Edward, Bella. He plays the piano and he loves music, but he also likes being a doctor. He went to school at Dartmouth…" Alice kept talking incessantly about Edward as we continued on our way to Edward's room with me still being dragged by the hand.

Finally, we stopped by the last door in the hallway where Alice knocked promptly on the door. There was no reply to come in, but Alice opened the door anyway. When I walked in, the room first seemed a little plain looking. It was just white. White walls, white bed, sheets, everything, but upon further notice there were things that gave the room life like the hundreds of CDs that lined one of the walls or the wall that was completely made of glass. It was very nice, and on the small couch in the corner laid a beautiful, bronze haired boy immersed in a thick, ancient-looking book.

This bronze haired boy, more like man, was undoubtedly the most gorgeous man I had ever seen. His hair was in a casual disarray and his pale skin was perfect in every way. There was no way to describe just how beautiful he was. Apparently, there was something in the water at the Cullen house.

"Go away, Alice," He said clearly, not even looking up from his book. His voice was the best thing I had ever heard. It was like smooth velvet, and I just wanted to sit and listen to him talk all day long.

"Oh, Edward, we have a visitor," Alice said in a sing song voice.

All of a sudden, he jumped up of the couch and looked up. Then, our eyes connected. His were a strange color--topaz-- but they were beautiful. I didn't want to ever look away.

"Edward, this is my new friend, Bella. She just moved here from Phoenix."

"So, I've heard," He replied not breaking our eye contact. "It's nice to meet you, Bella."

"Same here," I replied, looking away. I could feel a blush rising in my cheeks and I hated it. Alice just giggled before dragging me off to her room.

There was just something about Edward Cullen that I couldn't put my finger on.

* * *


	2. Doctor, Doctor

Hey! Thanks so much for those of you who reviewed, I love reviews! They just give me and extra incentive to update my story. So, the plot line is starting to come out in this chapter, but not fully yet so there is still a lot to look forward to so please stick with me. Well, I hope you all enjoy this chapter and please remember to review and if you have any questions just message me!

-Violet

And no, I don't own Twilight or Save the Last Dance

* * *

The first week of school went by pretty quickly for me. My newfound friendship with Rosalie and Alice really helped me get through all the things I hated about Forks, like the rain and the snow, but there was just something about them that didn't just feel right to me, like the fact that they were both gorgeous, smart, and extremely nice, but I was the only one they seemed to talk to at school besides each other. It made no since that people wouldn't be paying them as much attention as they paid me. They dressed in designer clothes, drove extremely nice cars, and lived in a huge house. It was obvious they had loads of money, but apparently, that didn't mean much to the people of Forks. Nobody seemed to especially like that I had started hanging out with Alice and Rosalie. While all the guys thought they were hot, they all looked as if they were kind of scared of them. All the girls were just jealous. Of their clothes, their looks, you name it, but they all tried to warn me to stay away from them, particularly Jessica and Mike.

"Bella, I don't know if it's the best idea for you to be hanging out with the Cullens," They confronted me one morning at school, before Alice and Rosalie arrived.

"Why is that?" I asked defensively. I had always been very protective of the people I was close to, and so far, Alice and Rosalie had been the only people to try to get close to me with no ulterior motive.

"Don't you think that they're a little strange?" Jessica chimed in. "Don't you just feel weird around them?"

Jessica had a point. I did feel weird around the Cullens, but not the way that the others seemed to feel. I felt safe, like I really belonged, a way I had never felt around any group friends before. "No, besides have you ever given them a chance? Have you ever tried to talk to Alice and Rosalie?"

"Us give them a chance?" Jessica said incredulously. "Ever since they moved here from Alaska two years ago, they have sat by themselves, talked to no one, and acted like their money makes them better than everyone else. Just because my dad's not a doctor doesn't mean that I am white trash."

I just stared at Jessica for a minute. Her eyes burned with rage, clearly from the jealously she possessed. The reason she and the other girls at school hated them so much was because they were withdrawn from everyone else, which made them seem stuck up; they kept to themselves and didn't go out of their way to become friends when they moved here. It made me angry that Jessica had jumped to conclusions and just assumed that the Cullens thought that they were better than everyone else.

"Listen, Bella, we are just trying to watch out for you," Mike grabbed me by the shoulders gently and looked into my eyes.

"Well, I can look out for myself just fine, thank you very much," I said coolly before walking away to join Alice and Rosalie who had just pulled up in the parking lot moments before.

Charlie felt completely different about my newfound friendship. He was extremely happy that I had started to become friends with the Cullen family. He surprised me one night while we were eating dinner by telling me that he had heard that I had been hanging around with Alice and Rosalie.

"Yeah, they're both really nice," I smiled mostly to myself. "But they're a little…different. They don't seem to fit in well at school with the other kids."

"People in this town," Charlie sighed. " Dr. Cullen is a brilliant surgeon who could probably work at any hospital in the world, make ten times the salary he gets here. We're lucky to have him-- lucky that his wife wanted to live in a small town. He's an asset to the community, and all of those kids are well behaved and polite. I had my doubts when they first moved here with all those adopted teenagers. I thought we might have some problems with them. But they're all very mature-- I haven't had one speck of trouble from any of them. That's more than I can say for the children of some folks who have lived in this town for generations. And they stick together they way a family should-- camping trips every other weekend…. Just because they're newcomers, people have to talk."

That was the most I had every heard Charlie talk, and it was obvious that he felt very strongly about this. "I am just glad you just found some nice girls to hang out with, Bella."

That was sweet, coming from Charlie, but when things started getting sentimental between the two of us, I knew it was time for me to exit the conversation. I quickly got up and put my plate in the sink and walked upstairs to finish my homework.

While I sat on my bed finishing the Trig homework my teacher, Mr. Varner, had assigned, my phone started ringing.

"Hello," I answered.

"Hey, Bella, it's Alice."

"Oh, hey, Alice, what's up?"

"Nothing just wondering what you were up to this weekend, specifically tomorrow night."

"Nothing that I know of. Why?"

"Well, Rose and I were thinking that it was time to have a girls night. You know, mani-pedis, movies, sleepover, etc. What do you think?"

"Sounds fun."

"Okay, then, it's settled. You can go home with Rose and me tomorrow after school," Alice giggled into the phone. I could tell by her voice that she was getting really excited. "Bella, we're going to have so much fun!"

"I'm sure we will," I smiled. "But I have to finish my Trig homework so I will talk to you tomorrow."

"Bye, Bella," Alice sang, then, hung up the phone.

After I got off the phone, I went downstairs to check with Charlie to make sure that it would be okay.

"Hey, Ch-um Dad," I said as I walked over to the couch where he sat watching basketball.

"Yeah?" He asked. He was barely there, engrossed into all that was college basketball.

"Is it okay if I spend the night at the Cullen's house tomorrow night? "

He turned and looked at me strangely, "Yeah, have fun, Bells."

The next day on our way to the Cullen's place all Alice could talk about was our girls night. She had all these plans, and it sounded like it would take more than one night to everything that she wanted us to do.

"We're going to get mani-pedis, watch sappy chick flicks-- I'm definitely thinking Titanic, guys, and ooh! We have to play truth or dare," Alice blabbed on and on, not stopping to let Rosalie or me get a word in. "Guess what, Bella? You can finally meet Jasper, Emmett, and Carlisle."

"Alice, calm down. You're going to scare the poor girl," Rosalie laughed as she turned off into the drive way. "What do you want for dinner tonight, Bella?"

"Oh, I don't care," I shrugged my shoulders. "You two pick."

"I have an idea!" Alice exclaimed while the car pulled into the garage next to a silver Volvo. "We can get dressed up and go to that really great Italian restaurant in Port Angeles, La Bella Italia."

"That sounds great, Alice," Rosalie agreed. "Maybe we can even convince the guys to go with us."

"Hello, girls," Esme Cullen greeted us as we entered the kitchen. She was separating cookie dough batter onto a pan. "Your father is upstairs in his study, girls, if you want to introduce Bella to him."

"Come on, Bella," Alice pulled me upstairs. "You can put your stuff in my room and then we can go talk to Carlisle."

Alice barely opened the door to her room and threw my stuff in before she was dragging me down the hallway again and suddenly stopped in front of a room near the end of the hallway that I assumed must have been her father's study. She knocked quietly and once again, did not wait for a reply before she went inside with Rosalie following.

"Carlisle," Alice said joyfully, "this is our friend, Bella."

"Hi, Bella, I am Carlisle Cullen," He smiled at me warmly. He, like all the other Cullens, was inhumanely handsome with movie star good looks, pale blonde hair, and the same porcelain skin and topaz eyes that they all seemed to posses. "Alice and Rosalie have told me so much about you, I feel like I know you already."

"Likewise," I smiled. At lunch earlier that day, Rose and Alice had filled me in on their family, where they were from, how they had moved from Alaska two years earlier, and other things like that. Carlisle was one of their favorite subjects to talk about and I could tell that they both loved him dearly.

"What have you girls planned for tonight?" He asked while he leaned on his desk in the study. The study was exactly how I had imagined a college dean or professor's office to be. Large bookshelves towered high over our heads and I was sure that there were more books in here than in a library.

"We're about to go get ready to go out to eat in Port Angeles, but we're also going to do our nails and watch movies," Alice bubbled as she explained our plans to her father. "Do you think Emmett, Jasper, and Edward will want to come with us to Port Angeles?"

"I don't see why not," Carlisle said. "Why don't you go ask them? I think they might being in Emmett's room playing video games."

Alice just smiled before leading the way down the hallway to another room I had never been in before. She didn't even knock this time, but just walked into the room. Emmett's room was a dark navy blue with a bed pressed up against the back wall and posters of sports superstars hung all over the walls. On the wall opposite of the bed, a large flat screen TV hung and in front of it, sat two men playing Xbox and really getting into it. One of the men was lean and honey-blonde. He looked tall, but I couldn't really tell because he was sitting down. The other guy was huge looking. He had brown curly hair and serious muscles, like he lifted weights. Both of them, like the rest of the Cullens, had the same pale, perfect skin and the same topaz eyes. Behind them in a comfortable looking chair lounged Edward, who was absorbed in a different book than I had seen him reading last time, but it looked just as thick and just as old. He, of course, was looking as beautiful, maybe even more, as the last time I had seen him.

"Hello, boys," Rosalie smiled as they were too occupied by their video game to notice that I was in the room. "Emmett, Jasper, this is Bella."

"Hey, Bella," Emmett said looking up at me while he was still playing the game. How he could do that was beyond me.

Jasper just politely nodded and smiled at me before turning back to the game. Alice had told me he tended to be a little shy so it didn't bother me. Edward, on the other hand, had dragged his attention away from his book and now was sending me a look that made feel a little uncomfortable. He looked like he was trying to figure me out, like he was trying to understand me fully, but he couldn't. I tried not to pay any mind to him, but it was unnerving. I didn't like it at all.

"Well, what do you guys think about coming to Port Angeles with us for the night?" Alice asked.

Edward looked at Jasper and Emmett for no less than a second before replying for the three of them. "Sounds great."

"Okay," Alice clapped her hands together ecstatically. "Be ready to leave in an hour and a half."

* * *

"Come on, Bella, please!" Alice pleaded with me. She was trying to convince me to let her do my make up, but she wasn't doing a very good job even if her puppy dog pout was so adorable.

"No, Alice," I said for the millionth time that night. "I told you already."

"Just given in, Bella. It's the easiest way," Rose called as she stood curling her hair into perfect ringlets in Alice's bathroom.

I contemplated for a moment. "Fine. Just do it."

"Aw, you're the best," Alice exclaimed as she started to go to town on my make up. "What color do you think for her eye shadow, Rose?"

"Hmm," Rosalie looked at all the many colors Alice had to offer, and believe me, she had a lot, before she pointed to a silvery gray color. "I am thinking….a soft silver, like that one, with little hints of blue. It will go great with that dress you have picked out."

"Dress?" I asked suspiciously.

"Now, don't get mad, Bella," Alice tried to calm me down. "I've just always wanted someone to let me dress them up and do their make up and hair, but Rosalie has never let me touch her hair or her face and I have three brothers. Please, just this once."

Once again, I had to give in to her because, well, it was Alice and it's hard not to give in to someone as cute as her. "If you must."

"Oh, you won't regret this, Bella. You are going to be the best looking girl in Port Angeles tonight, thanks to me."

Alice continued to do wonders with my make up while Rosalie, who I learned had also always wanted a human Barbie doll, started working with my hair. She put some stuff into it that I had no idea what it was and then took her curling iron and proceeded to curl it into soft, big curls. When they were both done, the shoved a dark blue item of clothing into my hand and left the bathroom for me to change in private.

The dress Alice had picked out for me was very pretty. It was a simple, long sleeved knit dress with a deep, round neckline and an empire waist. The best thing about the dress was not the style, thought. It was the beautiful color; a rich, warm royal blue color that contrasted nicely with my pale skin and really brought out the natural blush of my cheeks. To complement it, I wore a pair of silver flats.

"Aw, Alice," Rosalie sighed as I stepped out of the bathroom. I had to admit that they had done a good job tonight and that now I wouldn't mind them dressing me and doing my hair and make up every other night. "Just wait till Edward sees her."

"What?" Did I just hear that correctly? Just wait till Edward sees her? What could Rosalie possible mean by that?

"What, what, Bella?" Alice feigned confusion. She knew what I meant, I was sure of it.

"Never mind," I shook my head. I would figure it all out sooner or later.

After Rose and Alice finished getting ready, we walked downstairs just in time to meet the deadline we set to leave. Edward, Emmet, and Jasper were already gathered in the living room by the couch, each having a jacket in their hand and were quietly conversing, so quietly I couldn't even make out what they were saying.

"Hem, hem," Rosalie alerted them to our presence as we made our way over to them. They quickly turned around and dropped their conversation.

"Well, don't you ladies look awfully nice tonight," Emmett said. I could tell that he was a real charmer, and according to the girls, he was also a big goofball.

Edward stood a little ways off from the rest of us. He was dressed nicely in a dark blue, button down shirt with a pair of black slacks, and they looked very good on him. He was looking at me strangely once again, but not the same as before. He looked a little uncomfortable, like something was bothering him. He didn't say much the whole trip to Port Angeles (we all rode in Emmett's Jeep with me squished in between Alice and Rosalie in the back seat), but he did comment every so often if the conversation was directed at him. I wondered why he was so out of it. It appeared that he was not fully there to the rest of us, making him look some what pensive as if he had a lot on his mind.

We arrived in Port Angeles soon, thanks to Emmett's crazy driving, and Alice led us all to a quaint, little restaurant, called La Bella Italia, down in the main part of town.

"Look, Bella, it has your name in it," Emmett said goofily. He was really a sweet guy, despite the exterior. He might look like a big tough guy, but on the inside he was as soft as a teddy bear.

"Wow, Emmett, nice observation. I am sure Bella would have never known," Rosalie said bitingly as the waitress lead us to our table that was nestled in the very back of the crowded, yet small restaurant.

I took my seat in between Emmett, who had insisted that I sit beside him for God knows why, and Alice. Alice then proceeded to tell me every single item on the menu that she heard was good.

"The newspaper said that the spaghetti was really good, oh! and the lasagna, too," Alice examined the menu closely commenting on everything that she saw. "But I heard that the Gnocchi was the best. You would probably like that, Bella."

"Alice, just let the poor girl order for herself," Jasper said exasperatedly before prying the menu out of her tiny hands.

"The Gnocchi does sound good," I read the description on the menu. "I think that's what I am going to get."

"See, Jasper? I just helped her. She could have been sitting here for hours trying to find something to eat," Alice stuck out her tongue.

The waitress came and took our order and we sat around and waited for our food. During this time, we mostly talked about school and Jasper's trip to Asia that he had just recently returned from. Edward also pitched in by talking a little about his work at the hospital.

"I don't think I could work at a hospital," I laughed after he finished telling a story about a little boy who had accidentally swallowed a spoon. I had always been that little girl, the one who always had something strange stuck up her nose or had swallowed loose change which meant that I had spent plenty of time at the hospital in Phoenix when I was a little girl.

"Why not?" Edward looked at me curiously. His topaz eyes bored into mine deeply, searching for more than just then answer to his question.

"There's just too much blood," I shuddered just thinking about it; I hated the smell of blood. It smelt like copper and salt. "I am so squeamish. I almost passed out the last time they pricked my finger at the doctor's office."

Everyone laughed, but there was something weird about the way they all looked at each other after I made that comment, Edward looked especially peculiar. They looked like Alice had the first time I met her in English class. So I came to a definite conclusion right then and there. The Cullens all knew something that I didn't, and it had something to do with me.

As I looked around the table, I noticed something that also kept me guessing about them. While my plate was almost empty, every other plate at the table looked like it had barely been touched. Alice, who had ended up getting the spaghetti she had been raving about earlier, had barely touched her food except to occasionally pick up a noodle or two with her fork. Everyone else's plate, minus mine, seemed to be exactly like that, too. I didn't say anything, but I just stored that little piece of information away in my mind with the rest of the strange things I had picked up about the Cullen family, like the fact that they all had topaz eyes and pale skin even though they weren't really related. It wasn't that I didn't like the Cullens, in fact, I liked them a lot. It was just that there was something that was not quite right about them and I was determined to find out.

We walked back to Emmett's Jeep slowly, with Rose, Alice, and I linking arms and talking about the latest news going around school and the three guys walking a little way behind us. Suddenly, a sharp pain in my foot took me off guard. Not again, I thought to myself. It had happened before, the sharp pain that was now overtaking my right foot, but it had been a while and I thought it might have gone away. The pain progressed and after a while, Jasper began to sense it, how I'm not sure but when he came up behind me and grabbed my elbow softly, I could tell that he see that I was in pain.

"Bella, are you all right?" He asked me with concern coloring his voice. As soon as he said it, everyone whipped their heads around to look at me. Everyone had stopped walking and now, all eyes were focused on me.

"Yeah, um, I'm-- oww," I groaned, the pain in my foot was just to great to keep going on.

"What's the matter?" Edward immediately rushed to my side with worry clear in his beautiful eyes.

"My right foot is killing me," I whispered. This was just too embarrassing. I thought I had left all of this behind when I left Phoenix, but obviously not.

"Where does it hurt?" Edward said, sitting me down on a wooden bench close to us. The doctor side of him was taking over. He slowly and carefully removed the silver flat from my right foot, and took a close look at it.

"In the back, my Achilles tendon," I answered. I hated this. Here I was, just making new friends, starting over with a clean slate in Forks, when this has to pop up again.

"Have you hurt it before? What would set it off again?" Like a good doctor, Edward questioned me as he quickly observed my foot.

"Yeah, I hurt it about a year and a half ago," I said purposefully avoiding his last question. I knew that if I answered it I would suffer an onslaught of new questions from everyone.

"What did you do to it?" Emmett asked me inquiringly. He was, apparently, utterly fascinated in learning about my hurt foot. Emmett was normally very comical, but he had instantaneously sobered up.

"Oh, I, uh, took a bad fall," The words came out of my mouth all jumbled. It wasn't really a lie, I just wasn't telling the whole truth. For some reason, Jasper looked at me when I said this and I knew that he recognized that I was not telling the complete truth.

"Really, Bella?" Jasper looked at me questioningly. Well, they would find out sooner or later, so I guess it was now or never. I sucked in a deep breath before just spouting it out.

"I used to dance, ballet," I admitted. Edward's eyebrows shot up and he paused for a moment before he continued to examine my foot, his cold hands prodding gently at certain areas on my foot. Everyone else also wore shocked expressions, except for Alice although I am not sure why she didn't. It wasn't like I had ever told her. As far as I knew, Charlie was the only one in Forks who ever knew that I used to take ballet, besides Edward, Jasper, Emmett, Alice, and Rosalie, now.

"Used to?" Rosalie asked curiously. That was not a question I was ready to answer.

"Listen, It's not a big deal, you guys," I replied and gave them the best smile I could muster. "So what's the diagnosis on my foot, Dr. Cullen? Will I live?"

Edward's smile took my breath away. There were no words to describe just how gorgeous he looked. For a moment, I thought I had actually died sitting there on that bench and I would have been happy in that moment if I had, "I think you will, Miss Swan. You just need to stay off this foot for a little while and take it easy."

"Come on, Bella, my muscles and I will carry you the rest of the way to the car," Emmett joked as he picked me up in his arms and took off with me leaving everyone still hovering over the bench behind us.

I looked back over his shoulder and I saw Edward looking at me and our eyes met; I didn't look away.

* * *

The foot condition that Bella has is Achilles Tendinitis if anyone wants to look it up.

Thanks for reading! Now go review!


	3. Disappearance

Hey guys! Sorry it has been such a long time since I updated, but I have had tons of work at schools and finals, but I am hoping that my updates will become more regular now. Thank you guys so much for reviewing my story! It means a lot! Now, just keep reviewing and the more reviews I get, the more incentive I have to update. Okay, here is the next chapter of _Save the Last Dance!_

-Vi

AN- I don't own Twilight or Save the Last Dance

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The rest of the night at the Cullen's house went by rather uneventfully. Rosalie, Alice, and I had done our nails, watched sappy chick flicks, and ate popcorn (I was the only one who actually ate any, Rose and Alice just threw it at each other) just like we had planned. Emmett and Jasper had gone upstairs to resume the video game they had been playing before we left and Edward stayed in the living room with us, however opting to read one of his medical books instead of drooling over the ever gorgeous Leonardo DiCaprio with us.

"Just look at him," Rosalie dreamily sighed as she cuddled up to her pillow on the sofa. Alice was laying on her stomach with her feet crossed in the air above her on her hot pink sleeping while I lay on the sofa beside Rose. Edward was lounging on the love seat, barely moving at all except to turn the page of his book. If I didn't know any better, he would have looked like a perfect statue with his marble-like skin and perfectly chiseled face and body.

"He is such a hunk," Alice squealed as he leaned in to kiss Kate Winslet's character after she had jumped off a life boat to be with him while the ship was sinking. "What I wouldn't give for a piece of that fine-"

"Alice," Edward interrupted sternly. She just looked at him straight in the eyes and smirked. Edward shook his head as if he had some nasty picture pop up in his mind before turning back to his book.

"What do you think of Leo, Bells?" Rose asked as she passed me more popcorn. I had already devoured one large bowl of it.

"Well, he is pretty good looking," I thought for a moment, "but he's not exactly my type."

"So, what is your type?" Alice said after sharing a supposed-to-be sneaky glance with Rosalie. Edward's head snapped up to glare at Alice the moment the question darted out of her mouth.

"Uh, I don't know," I was embarrassed. I had never had much dating experience before. I had dated a couple of guys, but no one I had ever been serious with. "I'm not sure yet, but I don't think Leonardo DiCaprio is really my type. Really? Have you seen him lately?"

Alice laughed and I was glad to have the attention off me and back on the movie. Unfortunately, not all of the attention was off me just yet. Rosalie and Alice had turned back to admiring the fine acting and looks of Leo, but Edward hadn't gone back to his book. He looked at me curiously, like he did a lot of the time. I tried to ignore him, aw-ing in the right parts during the movie and acting sad when the ship started sinking quickly. I could feel his eyes boring into me and I turned to look at him, hoping that he would look away. Our eyes locked, his golden eyes meeting my chocolate ones. I'm not sure how long we sat there staring at each other, but I knew that I did not want to look away and that there was no way that I physically could. It was like my eyes were glued to his and there was a connection that I just couldn't break. But Alice could.

"Bella? Earth to Bella," She waved her pale hand in front of my face, snapping me out of my Edward-induced trance. "Are you with us?"

"Uh, yeah, I'm fine," I pried my eyes away from Edward and looked at Alice, who had moved from her pallet on the floor.

"Do you want to go upstairs and go to sleep? You look a little tired."

"That sounds good," I yawned and picked up the blanket that I had wrapped around my legs to keep me warm.

"Can you walk?" Edward jumped off the loveseat to come assist me. "Do you need me to help you?"

"I think I've got it, Edward," I smiled. I loved the sound of his name; I just wanted to say it over and over again.

"Don't push it, Bella," Rosalie warned me. "Edward, carry her. We don't want her to hurt herself."

"What? No-" I started before Edward scooped me up easily into his arms. I protested slightly at first, but really, I didn't mind Edward carrying me. What girl in their right mind would object to a god-like man carrying her upstairs to bed? Not that it was in that same context or anything. I actually enjoyed Edward carrying me to Alice's room. He smelled really good and it just felt so good to be in his arms. I felt like I was safe, like he would never let anything hurt me as long as he was there, and I was just sad to have that feeling go. Edward laid me down on Alice's king sized bed, her Egyptian cotton sheets rubbing smoothly against my skin.

"Good night, Bella," He said softly, a small smile playing on his gorgeous lips. Alice and Rosalie stood in the doorway giggling.

"'Night, Edward," I replied back dreamily. He looked at me one more time before he turned to exit the room.

"Good night, Edward," Alice and Rosalie chimed together.

Edward exited the room and the girls ran and jumped on the bed beside me, giggling like little school girls and talking to each other so fast that I could barely make out what they were saying.

"So…Bella," Alice said once the two of them had calmed down. "What is going on between you and my brother?"

My face burned and if I was looking in a mirror right then, I probably would have looked like a tomato. "We're just friends, Alice. I barely know him, and besides, he is your brother."

"Oh, we don't mind," Rosalie chipped in. "You can have him."

Once again, I could feel the blush rushing up to my cheeks. "Let's just go to sleep."

"Whatever you want, Bella," Alice sang. Obviously, that had a double meaning because the two of them had started laughing madly again.

We got under the covers and Alice went and turned the lights off and it wasn't long before I had dozed off into a dreamless, peaceful sleep.

A sweet aroma filled my nose as I shifted slightly in the large bed. Soft, light was filtering in though the windows and I squinted my eyes to adjust to the light. I rolled over in the bed. Alice and Rose were no where to be seen and all the covers seemed to be piled up on top of me. I pulled myself out of bed and looked in the mirror to check how bad my bed-head was and brushed my teeth before I went looking for the girls.

I followed the smell down to the kitchen where Alice and Rosalie stood making breakfast. Alice was wearing a 'kiss the cook' apron and one of those large, white chef hats that dwarfed her head. Rosalie just went for a yellow apron over the pajamas she had worn to bed last night.

"Good morning!" Alice smiled happily. "Edward, Bella's up!"

Edward walked into the kitchen looking as glorious as he usually did. Today, he was wearing a white button down shirt with a dark blue tie and a pair of khakis. It looked nice on him, just like everything else he wore. He smiled when he saw me.

"Good morning, Bella. Did you sleep well?" He questioned before sitting down at the table with the morning paper.

"Yes, I did," I replied, extremely glad that I had brushed my teeth before I came down stairs. "What time is it?"

"It is 8:45," Edward examined the nice watch on his wrist. "I have to be going soon. I have to work today."

A lump formed in my throat. It was strange. I didn't want Edward to leave and I felt weird thinking about being without him. Get a grip, I scolded myself mentally, he's just a guy. A really gorgeous, sweet, smart, amazing guy…I was hopeless.

"Bella, I hope you like French toast," Rosalie sat down a plate full of French toast in front of me.

"Oh, you guys didn't have to," I told them. They were just too good to me. Taking me to dinner last night and cooking breakfast for me this morning, I was a lucky girl to have friends like them.

"Nonsense," Rosalie scoffed. She sat down at the table beside me with the crossword puzzle from Edward's paper. Alice sat down, too, a Vogue magazine in front of her and a steaming mug of coffee sitting beside her.

"Besides, it gives Alice a chance to use that useless cookbook she bought a couple of months ago," Edward laughed. I had heard that Alice was a compulsive shopper from Rose and this just confirmed it.

I took a small bite out of the French toast. It looked good, but I wasn't sure if they would be seeing as Alice had made them. Rosalie, Edward, and Alice watched me intently as I put the fork in my mouth and chewed on the small bite. I moaned as the delicious French toast practically melted in my mouth.

"So, was it good?" Alice asked, practically jumping in her seat.

"Alice, I am probably going to kidnap you, hide you in my closet, and have you cook me breakfast every morning from now on," I joked as I continued to eat my great breakfast.

"Feel free," Edward smiled. Alice just hit him lightly on the shoulder.

"Don't you have somewhere to be Edward?" Alice glared at him. Edward checked his watch again and sighed.

"I have to go," He folded his paper and got up from the table. My throat was contracting as he tightened his tie and grabbed a white doctor's coat off a chair at the bar.

"Bye, Edward," Alice said uninterestedly, keeping her mind on all of the fashions in Vogue.

"Have fun," Rose said sarcastically. Edward rolled his eyes as he slipped on his jacket. I couldn't keep my eyes off him, trying to memorize everything about him before he just disappeared.

"I'll see you later, Bella," He promised me. It made me feel slightly better about him leaving.

"Bye, Edward," I said breathlessly as he dazzled me with his glorious smile. He grabbed his keys off the counter and walked out the door.

I turned back around and sighed, resting my chin in my hand while picking around at my food. Rosalie and Alice just stared at me.

"She's got it bad."

"Oh, yeah."

* * *

I got home around two o'clock that afternoon from the Cullen's house and I spent most of my evening trying to finish the homework I had been assigned this weekend. Trying is the key word. The whole time I could not keep my mind off of the glorious Edward Cullen. He was just a mystery to me. There was just something about him that I couldn't put my finger on.

Now that I thought about it, all of the Cullens seemed to be like that. They were all so similar even though they weren't related. They all had the same pale, marble-like skin that looked perfect at every angle. They had the same golden eyes, the eyes that I loved, and at every meal, I never saw a single one of them eat anything. There was nothing that I could come up with that could explain all of these strange things, so I stopped dwelling on it. I would find out one day, it would just take some more time and more information.

After finishing my homework, I took a shower and picked out my clothes to wear to school tomorrow. I laid down in bed and attempted to go to sleep, but it was no use. So, I did when I normally did when I couldn't sleep: I read. I picked up my favorite book _Pride and Prejudice_ and once again, I was captivated in all that was Lizzy and Darcy.

I woke up the next morning with my book on my chest and my light still on. My alarm clock was beeping frantically, showing me that it was 7:30 and I only had thirty minutes to get ready, eat breakfast, and get to school. I jumped out of bed and through on my clothes (a brown cable knit sweater, a light yellow tank top, and dark wash jeans with some brown flats). I kept my make-up and hair simple, putting only some mascara and cover up and throwing my hair half way up. I grabbed a granola bar and hurried out to my car.

I arrived at school just in time and ran to my first period class. Alice sat in the classroom smirking at me from her desk as I walked in right when the bell rang. I sighed heavily as I sat down in my seat and pulled out my English book.

"So, Bella, did you have a good morning?" Alice laughed quietly.

"Is it really that obvious?" I smiled slightly.

"No, I am just extremely observant," Alice smiled back. "Oh, by the way, Bella, Edward's coming to visit us at lunch. I think it's because he wants to see you."

"Oh, uh, he is," I tried to play it off like I didn't care, but my heart was beating so fast that I was pretty sure everyone in the room could hear it. "That's nice."

Alice just lightly giggled and turned back to her book. I sighed again. Truthfully, I couldn't wait until lunch.

The next three periods went by slowly and the anticipation of seeing Edward again kept me on the edge of insanity the whole time. The bell rang for lunch, I went straight to the bathroom and splashed some cold water on my face and took a few deep breaths to try and calm myself.

When I had calmed myself as much as I possibly could, I headed to the cafeteria where I knew Edward would be. I kept breathing deeply as I reached to open the door and walked in. I looked across the cafeteria to our table and no one was there. The table was completely empty. I made my way across the cafeteria to sit down at the table. Maybe they were just late to lunch, but I had a feeling that they weren't. Alice and Rosalie were always there before me. Maybe something came up.

I looked down to check my phone. If something bad had happened, I was sure either Alice or Rose would have texted me or called or something. Sure enough, I had a new text message.

B,

Sorry we had to leave but Carlisle and Esme called a surprise camping trip for tonight and they came and got us. We will have to postpone your little lunch date with Edward, but trust me, there will be plenty more opportunities.

Xo,

Alice & Rose

I was a little disappointed, but I decided to try not to let it get me too down. I went about the rest of my day normally and went home.

While I was downstairs cooking dinner for Charlie, I heard my phone ringing loudly. I quickly ran upstairs to get it, hoping in the back of my mind that it was Edward, or at least Alice or Rosalie, calling to tell me that they were back from their trip. I barely missed the last ring of my phone, but the caller left a voicemail. I quickly punched in my code and listened to my new message.

"Hey, Bells, it's Liz. I was just calling because I haven't heard from you in a while and I was just checking in to make sure you were okay. We all miss you down here in Phoenix. It would be great to hear from you. Just call me back, please. Bye," A voice said warmly.

My blood chilled when I listened to that message. That was not a message that I wanted to hear, not a message that I needed to hear. I had left that part of my life behind in Phoenix and I didn't want to go back.

* * *

Thanks for reading! Now, review!!


	4. Legends

Hey guys! Thanks so much for reviewing last chapter! You all are so great. I wanted to answer some questions that some people wanted to know about before I continue on with this story.

**Are the Cullens vampires?**

**Yes, the Cullens are vampires.** I know that for some, it might have come across as a little confusing with the storyline being somewhat different and all, but in this chapter and later chapters we will deal more with the vampire aspect of things.

**Is this story like the movie _Save the Last Dance_?**

**Yes and No.** While I did borrow a few things from _Save the Last Dance_, most of the storyline is either completely my own or Stephenie Meyer's.

Okay, now that we have the question and answer segement over, it's on to the next chapter! Please review, review, review!

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I quickly deleted the voicemail, trying to forget that I had ever gotten it. Maybe if I pretended like it had never happened, it would go away and I wouldn't have to deal with it. That wasn't going to happen. Whenever something bad happened to me, I had a horrible habit of running away from my problems only to have them come back and bite me hard. I had to deal with this now, or else.

I dialed the number I was so familiar with, the number I had known by heart since I was young, and waited for an answer.

Ring.

Ring.

Ring.

"Hello?" A voice I knew well picked up on the other line.

I paused for a moment. "Hey, Liz…it's Bella."

* * *

The next day at school, Alice and Rosalie were back, apologizing all day about their unexpected camping trip and how they were going to make up for it this weekend with some great trip to Seattle, just us girls. The day went by as normal, English, Spanish, Trig, lunch, Biology, Gym. Nothing new happened.

"Bella, did anything interesting happen to you yesterday?" Alice asked after school. I had the strange feeling that she somehow knew about the phone call I got yesterday, but there was no way she could know, right?

"Uh, no," I had always been a bad liar and Alice could read me like a book, but she left it at that.

"So, you mentioned Friday night that you used to dance," Rosalie said. I could see where this conversation was going, and I didn't like it one bit.

"Yeah," I turned my attention to Angela Weber pulling her car out of the parking lot, looking at it like it was the most interesting thing in the world.

"Why did you stop?" Rosalie asked curiously.

"Listen, guys, ballet isn't part of my life anymore," I stated. "I've got to get home. Charlie is having some friends over."

I walked to my car, leaving them starring at me walking away. I know that what I did wasn't very nice, seeing everything that Rose and Alice had done for me since I had moved to Forks, but that just wasn't something that I was comfortable talking about. What I had said was true. Ballet was not part of my life anymore. I had given that up six months ago.

I went home and fell asleep accidentally for about an hour. I was mentally drained after my argument with Alice and Rosalie.

"Bells, Billy and Jacob are on their way," Charlie called from downstairs stirring me from my light sleep

I got up from my bed and walked over to the full length mirror hanging on my door to make sure my outfit was looking okay and hadn't gotten too wrinkled. I combed through my thick hair with my fingers a couple of times and lightly pinched my cheeks to give them a little bit of color before heading downstairs.

Charlie had been friends with Billy Black before I was even born. Billy was a Quileute Indian and along with his son, Jacob, and two daughters, Rachel and Rebecca, he lived on the Reservation in La Push. Occasionally, Billy and Jacob would come to Forks to visit Charlie and watch some sports games with him.

"Bella, it's good to see you again," Billy smiled at me warmly. He sat in a wheelchair as a boy, Jacob, I presumed, pushed him into the living room.

"It's good to see you again, too," I replied. Charlie and Billy went off to do their sports thing and that left Jacob and I alone.

Jacob was pretty tall for his age, which was only 15. He was cute, in a little brother way, but nothing like Edward. While Edward was gorgeous and pale. Jacob was sweet looking and very tan. He had long, dark black hair that he pulled back in a ponytail at the nape of his neck and he was grinning like crazy.

"Hey, Bella," He said. I could barely remember Jacob from my childhood, but I guessed that we had somewhat been friends during the summers that I had spent in Forks.

"Hey," I smiled, hoping that I seemed somewhat friendly. It was sort of awkward, but there was nothing I could do about it.

"So, how are you liking Forks?" Jacob asked as we sat down on the couch. I could hear the TV in the next room and Charlie and Billy yelling at some big play in the game that had just happened.

"Ah, it's pretty good," I thought about it. "I've made some pretty good friends."

"Like who?" Jacob asked curiously.

"Well, Mike Newton is pretty nice, but he is a little clingy," Jacob laughed really hard. "And the Cullen girls, Alice and Rosalie, are pretty great. They've made me feel really welcome."

All of a sudden, I felt really bad for what I had said to them earlier. They hadn't deserved that. They were only trying to be good friends to me.

"The Cullens?" Jacob said strangely. His face was weirdly distorted.

"Yeah, do you know them?" It was my turn to be curious. There was something in his tone and face when he talked about them.

"You could say that."

"What?" Now, I was really curious.

"It's nothing, Bella. Just forget I ever mentioned it," He said quickly, trying to change the subject.

"No, I really want to know," I replied. I wanted, no, I needed to know. I looked at Jacob for a minute the way that Alice looked at me sometimes whenever she wanted to get her way.

"Okay, but you can't tell anyone," Jacob started. "And remember its not like I believe this stuff or anything, it's just some old tribal legend."

"I promise not to tell anyone."

"Well, there are lots of legends, some of them claiming to date back to the Flood--supposedly, the ancient Quileutes tied their canoes to the tops of the tallest tries of the mountain to survive like Noah and the ark.

Another legend claims that we descended from wolves-- and that the wolves are our brothers still. It's against tribal law to kill them. Then there are the stories about the cold ones."

"Cold ones?" I asked. I had no idea what this had to do with Cullen family.

"Yes. There are stories of the cold ones as old as the wolf legends, and some much more recent. According to legend, my own great-grandfather knew some of them. He was the one who made the treat that kept them off our land."

"Your great-grandfather?" I tried to keep him going with the story, trying not to seem to excited about the story.

"He was a tribal elder, like my father. You see, the cold ones are the natural enemies of the wolf--well, not the wolf, really, but the wolves that turn into men, like our ancestors. You would call them werewolves."

"Werewolves have enemies?"

"Only one," Jacob answered huskily. "So you see, the could ones are traditionally our enemies. But this pack that came to our territory during my great-grandfather's time was different. They didn't hunt the way others of their kind did -- they weren't supposed to be dangerous to the tribe. So my great-grandfather made a truce with them. If they would promise to stay off our lands, we wouldn't expose them to the pale faces."

I still wasn't quite sure where Jacob was going with this but I kept asking questions anyway. "If they weren't dangerous, then why…?"

"There's always a risk for humans to be around the cold ones, even if they're civilized like this clan was. You never know when they might get to hungry to resist."

"What do you mean, 'civilized'?"

"They claimed they didn't hunt humans. They supposedly were somehow able to prey on animals instead."

I tried to keep my voice casual. "So how does it fit in with the Cullens? Are they like the cold ones your great-grandfather me?"

"No," Jacob said, trying to draw out the suspense of the moment. "They are the same ones."

He smiled after he said it, enjoying the dumbfounded look that I was sure was on my face. "There are more of them now, a new female and a new male, but the rest are the same. In my great-grandfather's time they already knew of the leader, Carlisle. He'd been here and gone before your people had even arrived."

"And what are they?" I asked after I had finally processed all of the information. "What are the colds ones?"

Jacob smiled darkly at me. "Blood drinkers. Your people call them vampires."

Jacob's legends had scared me. How could the Cullens be vampires? Weren't vampires supposed to be scary and ugly and murderers? There was no way the beautiful, loving Cullen family could be those monsters.

After the Blacks had left, I got on my laptop and went to Google. There was only one way I could know for sure if this was true. I was going to Google vampires.

I felt really silly as I started looking at the articles online about vampires. I read one about Dracula, a couple about vampires in Egypt, and one about an Italian vampire called Stregoni benefici. The last article about this Stregoni benefici gave me some hope.

It read: Stregoni benefici is an Italian vampire, said to be on the side of goodness, and mortal enemy of all evil vampires.

Maybe the Cullens were like him. There was no way the same people (were they people? Was it wrong to call them that?) that I knew could be evil.

* * *

My anxiety was the highest it had ever been as I drove to school the next morning. I was going to see Alice and Rosalie and I wasn't sure how I was going to react after finding out about them being…well, vampires. I parked my car in its usual parking spots. I saw Alice and Rosalie sitting at one of the picnic tables in the courtyard and I knew they saw me, but they weren't coming over. Now I knew, the ball was in my court. I could either go running and screaming away from the nicest people, er, vampires, in Forks or I could continue to be their friend. Slowly, but surely, I made my way over to them.

"Hey, guys," I said nervously. I clutched the notebook I held in my hand as tightly as possible.

"Bella," Alice smiled warmly. I took note of her razor, sharp, blindingly white teeth, but I quickly averted my eyes.

"Bella, are you okay?" Rosalie asked, clearing off space from me on the bench next to her.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I sighed. "Listen, guys, I'm really sorry about how I acted yesterday. You two didn't deserve that. Ballet is just a subject that I don't like to talk about."

"Oh, it's okay," Alice said, putting her little arms around me and pulling me into a hug. Rosalie did the same also.

"There's something else, too," I was suddenly nervous again.

"What is it, B?" Rosalie asked me concernedly.

I looked straight into Rosalie's golden eyes and said, "I know."

* * *

The drive over to the Cullen's house was almost silent. Alice and Rose had taken me knowing their secret pretty quietly. There was no big outburst, but they had decided that we needed to skip school and go straight to their house. Alice assured me that they would never hurt me and that I shouldn't be afraid. Rosalie remained as quiet as a tomb.

"I'm kind of glad you know, Bella," Alice said lightly, breaking the heavy silence that was weighing down on us. "Now, we don't have to hide anything from you. It feels good." I smiled lightly at her and even Rosalie lifted up the corners of her perfect lips slightly.

We arrived at the Cullen house and were first greeted by Esme sitting on the couch in the living room reading a home décor magazine. She noticed us immediately and smiled tenderly.

"Hello, girls, why aren't-"

"Bella knows, Esme," Rosalie interrupted her. Esme wasn't sure how to respond, she quickly recovered though.

"Oh, well, I'll call your father," Esme swiftly picked up the phone and dialed the number so fast I couldn't even keep up with her fingers. She also talked so softly and speedily to Carlisle I couldn't understand what she was saying. "They'll be home soon."

"Emmett, Jasper," Alice said in a normal voice. I was confused as to why she said their names because there would be no way they would be able to hear her all the way down here in the living room.

"Hey, Bella," Emmet said scaring me. He had snuck up behind me. "So you know about us now?"

"Uh, yeah," There wasn't really anything else I could say to that.

"Don't be worried, Bells. We're the good guys," Emmett's laugh boomed through out the room. It was so loud that it hurt my ears just a little bit. Jasper just rolled his eyes and took a seat by Alice on the couch.

"Bella, I am sure that you have a lot of questions about us and we also have some questions for you," Esme said and I nodded. "Carlisle and Edward will be here momentarily and they will answer most of them for you."

I just nodded. Edward; I had almost forgotten about him in all this chaos. My heart started beating fast just thinking about him. Jasper looked at me strangely, almost humorously, as I sat on the edge of the couch nervously. I head the door open and I almost jumped up off the couch.

"Bella," Carlisle smiled sincerely. He seemed very…happy. I smiled back slightly. Edward, on the other hand, seemed very distant. He hadn't even looked at me yet. "I'm sure that you have a lot of questions, but first, there are some questions that we have to ask you."

"Okay," I replied. It felt like they were interrogating me. I sat on the couch beside Emmett, while everyone else was on the other side of the living room. Jasper, Alice, Rosalie, and Esme sat on the couch opposite of Emmett and I while Carlisle was in a chair closer to us. Edward stood behind the couch, staring pensively out the window.

"How did you find out, Bella?" Carlisle asked softly. There was no way this man could be evil. He was too kind, too caring.

I proceeded to tell them about Jacob, his visit yesterday night, and his people's legends. I told them about my embarrassing research on Google and about all the information I had collected before I found out about their secret. They confirmed most of what Jacob's story had already told me. They really were vampires, but they didn't drink the blood of humans, only of animals.

"I wonder…" Alice thought aloud.

"What, Alice?" Carlisle turned his attention to her.

"Alice thinks that the reason she couldn't see Bella last night was because of the Blacks being their," Edward answered for her. I was befuddled at how he could know what Alice was thinking.

"How did you know that?" I blurted out.

"Edward reads minds," Alice chimed. I was horrified. Edward knew what I was thinking?? He knew that I thought he was beautiful and that I loved being around him whenever possible?? "Don't worry, though. He can't read your mind."

"Why?" That's…weird.

"I don't know. Maybe's it's because you give out AM signals and I'm only getting FM," Edward mused, his face forming that beautiful smile that I loved.

"Can you all read minds?" I looked around the room hoping that Edward wasn't the only who couldn't read my mind.

"No, Edward's the only one who can read minds, but we all have these, powers, kind of, that we carried over from our human lives," Emmett answered. "Alice can see the future and Jasper can influence feelings."

I slowly let all of it seep in. This was a lot of overwhelming information to take in. They were vampires, some who could read minds, tell the future, influence powers, and there was no telling what other kinds of things they could do. Suddenly, I felt a calm, lethargic feeling sweep over me. It was so relaxing, so soothing…

"Jasper, stop it! You're going to make her fall asleep," Alice reprimanded him. She then turned her attention back to me. "Now, Bella, I know that you have a lot more questions and this maybe a little overwhelming, but I think that you should probably go home now and try to take everything in. You need to be alone right now."

Alice was right. No matter how much I loved the Cullen family, I needed to be alone to process all of the thoughts rushing through my head.

"Edward, why don't you take Bella home?" Rosalie suggested, smiling innocently. Edward just glared at her before grabbing his keys off of the table he had set them down on earlier.

"Bye, Bella!" Alice called brightly. "Have fun!"

Jasper smiled at me while Carlisle and Esme both waved at me as Edward and I moved towards the door. Emmett, however, decided that waving, saying goodbye, nor smiling were a good way to say goodbye so he did it his own way: he pulled me up into his arms in a big bear hug.

"Emmett….I can't…breathe," I choked out. I made a mental note to add super-strength to my list of things vampires could do.

"Emmet, be careful with her," Edward barked at him, shooting him a harsh glare as well. After hearing Edward's words, Emmett put me down as carefully as a little girl would her favorite china doll.

I rolled my eyes, "I'm not that delicate."

Edward and Emmett just laughed and I then followed Edward out to his car, a shiny, silver Volvo. It was a nice car and I could tell that he really like it. Edward zoomed over to my side, so fast that I didn't even see him, to open the car door for me. I looked at him strangely and he just smiled and my heart melted into a little puddle of goop.

"Do you mind?" Edward asked as he turned on the CD player. I shook my head no as the soft sounds of classical music floated into the car, Debussy's Clair de Lune to be exact. I loved this song, but it reminded me of my old life in Phoenix.

"You like Clair de Lune?" I asked Edward faintly. For some reason, whenever I listened to this song, I felt like I had to whisper, to give it the proper respect it deserved.

"Yes, it's one of my favorites," Edward replied. He never ceased to amaze me with all of the wonderful things he said or did, even if he was a vampire.

"Mine, too," I sighed, relaxing into the seat. It was raining now, like normal in Forks, and the familiarity of the rain was helping me unwind. Edward just looked at me like he was confused.

"I don't understand you sometimes," He reflected. He didn't look at me, just continued to drive down the long, winding road away from the Cullen's house. "You are so much different than anyone I have ever met before."

"I could say the same thing about you," I closed my eyes and smiled lightly.

"So you like classical music?" He asked as the song changed to Debussy's Passepied, the fourth movement of Suite bergamasque.

"I love it, back in Phoenix-" I stopped myself. Edward was just too easy to talk to.

"Back in Phoenix?" Edward asked curiously.

"It's nothing, never mind," I shook my head. I wasn't ready for anyone to know about it. I wasn't sure if I would ever be ready for anyone to know about it.

"I hate it when you do that," Edward sighed. "It's just so frustrating, not being able to read your mind."

"It's a tough world," Edward smiled. "That's how I feel everyday."

A comfortable silence came over us and I didn't mind. As much as I loved talking to Edward and hearing his velvety voice, I didn't like him (or anyone) questioning me about Phoenix and my past.

* * *

I woke up in my bed and looked at my alarm clock. It was 8:00! I had to get ready for school. I jumped out of bed, through on some clean clothes and scurried around my room getting my things together. I looked out my window and saw that it was dark outside. It was 8:00 at night, not in the morning. Then, it all hit me. Vampires, mind readers, psychics, super-strength, and Edward all came flying back at me. What had happened? How had I gotten here when I had been in the car with Edward?

On my bedside table, I notice a small piece of white folded paper that definitely had not been there before. I picked it up, quickly unfolded it, and read it once, twice, three times. It was from Edward.

_Bella,_

_You looked to peaceful to wake up so I just carried you up to your room. I hope that you don't mind. I really enjoyed our conversation today and I hope that I will see you very soon. Be safe._

_Edward Cullen_

His perfect handwriting and words made me melt once more and I fell on my bed perfectly content with the world.

* * *

Okay, that was chapter 4 and there was a lot of information to take in. Now, review please!


	5. What Happens in Phoenix,Stays in Phoenix

Okay, guys, here is chapter five! I just want to thank you all so so so much for reading and reviewing my story. I wasn't expecting this much! Here is chapter five and in this chapter we are finally getting the real reactions of some of the Cullens about Bella knowing about them and we are also learning about Bella's past. Some of the dialogue in this chapter are direct quotes from the movie _Save the Last Dance_, but that's pretty much all this story has to do with that movie. When you are finished reading, please, please, please review. I am getting on my knees and begging!

Vi

AN- Don't own Twilight, Save the Last Dance, Giselle, or Pacific Northwest Ballet

* * *

If I someone had told me before I moved to Forks, that I would meet vampires and actually become friends with them, I probably would have laughed at them. I hadn't even known that vampires existed, much less that I would become friends with a family of them. I was still trying to figure out what all vampires could do. They each had special abilities, they had super-strength (shown to me by Emmett), and according to Alice, they could run really, really fast, too. I had yet to witness the running, but Alice said that she would show me sometime soon. She also promised that we would be going to Seattle this weekend to 'have some fun', as she said.

While Alice had been warming up to me a lot lately, Rosalie was becoming more and more distant. It had been almost two weeks since I found out about them being vampires, and I hardly ever saw her anymore, even at school. During lunch, she would go to the library supposedly to study or she would just sit out in her car. I asked Alice what was going on and she just said that it was nothing. Rosalie was just being weird and it was nothing to worry about. I thought that until I overheard a conversation between Rosalie and Edward one night while I was at the Cullen's house.

"Oh please, Edward," I was walking down the hall to Alice's room when I turned the corner and saw Rosalie and Edward in Edward's room talking extremely softly. I knew that it wasn't right to listen in, but I couldn't help it. I moved as quietly as I could to the door and leaned in slowly. "We both know that this is dangerous. What happens if she tells someone?"

I had a distinct feeling that they were talking about me. Who else would they be talking about?

"She won't," Edward said yelled before taking a deep breath and trying to calm down. "Alice saw that she wouldn't."

"And you think everything Alice sees comes true?" Rosalie replied condescendingly. It sounded like she was teasing him.

"No, but about this, yes," His voice had taken on a different tone, one that was softer, more melancholy.

"Admit it, Edward. We both know that you want her to be one of us," Rosalie said bitterly.

"No! I won't subject her to this type of life," Edward raised his voice again.

"Alice saw it! You know it's going to happen sooner or later so why don't you just do it now! Make her one of us before she tells someone!"

"I said no, Rosalie," He said slowly and darkly.

"Well, if you won't, I will," She said defiantly. She made to go to the door and I quickly backed away ready to run so they wouldn't find me eavesdropping on their heated conversation, but she never came out the door. The next thing I heard was a sharp yelp of pain that sounded like Rosalie and I could only guess that Edward had caught her.

"If you ever, and I mean, EVER hurt Bella, I swear…" He didn't have to finish his sentence to get the point across.

I speedily walked away, trying to get as far from that as possible. I ran in Alice's room and closed the door as quietly as possible and rested my back against it as I sunk down to the floor. I took calming breaths as I tried to comprehend everything that I had just heard.

What I had a hard time understanding was Rosalie. She had never sounded as malicious and just plain mean as I had heard her today. Rosalie wanted to hurt me. By saying that, it broke my heart. How could she possibly think that I would tell anyone about the Cullens? Hadn't I proved myself worthy of her friendship? I counted her as one of my closest friends, and she just wanted to hurt me, but fortunately, Edward was there. Edward was another thing that confused me. He believed that I wouldn't tell anyone, just like Alice and apparently, everyone else but Rose, but then there was that part about subjecting me to 'this type of life.' Was he talking about me becoming a vampire?

"Bella, what are you doing?" Alice called from behind the door I was still blocking. She probably could have knocked the door down if I hadn't been sitting there, but she and the rest of the Cullens were always extremely cautious around me.

"Oh, sorry," I moved from in front of the door and Alice came in. She saw me sitting on the floor and a worried look came across her face. I stopped her before she had the chance to question me. "I'm fine."

"You heard them didn't you?" She said queasily, like the thought of that conversation made her sick. I just nodded.

Alice gently grabbed me by the arm and led me out of the house, grabbing the keys to her canary yellow Porsche 911 Turbo on the way. We both go in the car and Alice sped off. She had driven for about five minutes when we stopped in the middle of nowhere. There was absolutely nothing around.

"Sorry, I had to do this, but you know, living in a house where everyone has super hearing and two people have special abilities to read your mind and sense your feelings really puts a limit on a girl's privacy," She explained. I also added super hearing to my list of things vampires could do.

"It's okay," I laughed, but then I remembered the conversation I had overheard earlier and my mood severely changed.

"Bella, I feel so bad that you had to hear that," Alice said with a sincere look of hurt on her face. "Rosalie…it's just that she….She's worried."

"Worried?"

"Yes," Alice nodded. "She's worried of the consequences there might be now that we are so, um, intricately involved in your life."

"But you guys don't drink human blood, right? Shouldn't there be no problem?" I asked.

"That is right, Bella. We abstain from human blood, but sometimes, the call is just too much. It's kind of like living off tofu for the rest of your life. You can live off of it, but it's never going to fully be enough."

"So it's hard for you to be around me?" I questioned. This was all new information for me. It always seemed like they had no problem being around me, except for maybe Jasper now that I think about it. He always looked like he was in a little bit of pain.

"For some of us, yes, but for Carlisle, Edward, and Rosalie, not really," Alice replied.

"Why isn't it hard for them?"

"Well, they have been refraining from human blood so long that it doesn't affect them the same way that it affects the rest of us. That's why Carlisle and Edward are able to work in the hospital," I had never thought of that.

There was a pause as I added all the new data to list and racked through my brain to see if there was anything else I could ask Alice about. Then, it hit me. Alice had seen me coming. That was what Edward and Rosalie had been talking about.

"Alice, you saw me coming didn't you?" I broke the silence. Alice let out a long sigh of frustration and turned to me.

"I knew you were going to find out about it sooner or later, but I was rather hoping for later," She said more to herself. "Now, listen, Bella, what I am about to tell you, I want you to repeat to no one, not Rosalie, Jasper, Emmett, Esme, Carlisle, and especially not Edward. He would quite possibly kill me if he knew I was telling you this. Do you promise?"

"I promise."

"The first time I saw you was not your first day of school. I had seen you many months before that when you were extremely different from who you are today. It was peculiar. I don't normally have visions about humans. Carlisle thinks it might be because I don't remember being one, but that's a story for another day. Anyways, I was having these visions of you, going to school, driving your car, all these random things, and I had no idea who you were. One day, I saw you coming to Forks and you were going to be in a couple of my classes. I was really curious as to why I was having all these visions of you, but Carlisle and I could never figure out why. I even talked to Edward about it, and he saw some of the visions, but we could never find the connection. That was until the first time I met you. You walked into class gracefully as you always do and the first time I laid eyes on you, I _knew_ you were going to be one of us, a vampire, a Cullen."

I had no idea what to say. I was going to be a vampire? I was going to be a Cullen? I remembered Rosalie asking Edward if he thought everything Alice saw would come true and he said no and he sounded sad about it. Did Edward want me to become a vampire?

"Bella, before you freak out, I just want you to know that not everything I see comes true," She took my warm hand and held it in her cold ones, trying to ease my uncertainty. "All my visions are subjective, and they are always changing based on everyone's decisions, but I am just so sure of you becoming one of us. I have never been so confident in one of my visions as I am of this one. But if you don't want to be one of us, just tell me now and we will leave and you will never see or hear from us again. It's your choice, Bella. I'm not asking you to become a vampire today, tomorrow, or next year even, but if you are with us, there is always a chance."

I, once again, had a lot to sink in. I knew that becoming a vampire today wasn't something I wanted, but the idea of losing the Cullens was unbearable. I couldn't let them leave, "I don't know about being a vampire, Alice. All I know is that I want you and your family around as long as you will be around." Alice smiled and gave me a small hug, squeezing me as gently as she could.

"Don't worry about Rose. She'll come around soon. I know it."

"What about, Edward?" I asked.

"What about Edward?"

"You told me especially not to tell him," I clarified for her.

"He'll have to tell you that himself," Alice laughed deviously.

"But you told me not to tell him," Alice just raised her well groomed, right eyebrow and stared at me before starting the car and zooming off for home.

* * *

"What do you mean you're not going?" I asked furiously. Alice had just made plans for us this tonight, just to bail on me to take care of Jasper, who according to her was 'going through a rough time.' Sure, rough as in he couldn't find the remote to the TV he was glued to.

"Chill out, Bella," Alice laughed, holding up her hands in front of her. "I made great back up arrangements for you."

I just looked at her like she was crazy while waiting for her to unveil 'great' back up arrangements and hoping that they weren't something like sky diving, bungee jumping, or race car driving, but knowing Alice, they were probably going to be something wild.

"Well, you and Edward are going to Seattle," She smiled cunningly. I bet she had the whole thing planned the whole time. It was a very Alice thing to do.

"What are we doing in Seattle?" I asked trying to sound like I didn't care that I was going with Edward to Seattle instead of Alice. I cared, a lot.

"That's for me to know, and you to find out," Edward teased from behind me, entering the living room. He had yet to find out about the little conversation I had overheard between him and Rosalie and Alice and I planned to keep it that way.

"That's not fair," I laughed. He always put me in a better mood by just smiling. God, I am so pathetic.

"Come one, Bella," Alice grabbed my arm. "Lets go get you dressed."

Edward looked at us as Alice practically dragged me upstairs like a rag doll to her room. I swear, she go too much enjoyment out of that.

Rosalie was still frigid to me, so it was just Alice and I getting ready this time. Part of our deal for this weekend was that she could pick out my outfit and fix my make up and hair. I didn't particularly like it, but it made her happy and she always made me look good, so I tried not to complain.

"I like this one," She picked out a sleek, black cocktail dress with one shoulder that reached down to about mid-thigh. It was paired with a pair of blood red, peep-toe pumps with five inch heels. "These shoes and that dress are going to make your legs look killer."

She spent forever on my hair and make up before I was allowed to put on my dress. My make up was kept mostly natural with a warm blush that made my skin look like it glowed and soft pink eye shadow. With my hair, she left it down and wavy, like it normally was, but she put something in it that made it so soft and shiny. I would have to figure out what that was and get some for myself.

I put the dress and the shoes on and walked to the full length mirror. I barely recognized myself. The girl standing in front of me was gorgeous with beautiful skin and hair cascading down her back and she had a body to die for. I was in awe of the work Alice could do. She was truly a miracle worker.

"I always knew you were a babe, Bells, but wow!" Emmett said from the doorway.

"Emmett, get out," Alice threw a shoe at him, but, using his fast reflexes, he dodged it before it could hit him.

"Fine, I'm going," He replied. "I just wanted to tell you that Edward is waiting downstairs and he is getting a little bit impatient."

"Oh!" Alice squealed. Yeah, she definitely had this whole night planned from the get go.

Alice marched me down the hall to the stairwell where she told me to wait as she went down to announce me. I didn't see why she was making a big deal out of it, but it was Alice. I heard her say my name and I assumed that was my cue so I made my way downstairs as gracefully as possible. Edward stood waiting there at the bottom and he looked as god-like as ever. He was wearing a nice black suit with a white shirt and a black tie; the outfit contrasted extremely well with his pale skin.

"Wow…you look," Edward was struggling for words, something I had never seen him do. "You look so beautiful."

The way he looked at me made my skin tingle and my brain melt to goop. I could barely get out the words 'thank you' before I turned into a puddle on the ground. Alice handed me a black coat on our way out the door and Edward escorted me over to his Volvo where he opened the passenger side door for me, like a gentleman.

"I'm not coming over to your house again if your sister is going to play Human Barbie with me," I said once I had gained my voice (and mind) back. Alice just laughed and waved as we pulled out of the drive way.

Edward laughed, too, "She's just having her fun. If it's really bothering you, I can ask her to stop."

"No, it's not that unbearable," I answered. "As long as it makes her happy."

"It makes her a lot happier than you know," He answered. "I don't know if Alice ever told you, but she doesn't remember anything about her human life. We all remember very little of our own, but Alice remembers nothing, not even how she became a vampire. She just woke up after her transformation and if she hadn't had her foresight and known that she was going to meet us one day, I think she probably would have gone crazy."

"So you don't remember your family?" Was that something I was willing to give up to be a vampire?

"A little bit. When Carlisle found me, I was dying of Spanish Influenza in 1918. I was seventeen," He heard my intake of breath and reassured me that he didn't remember it well, that human memories fade. "I remember how it felt, when Carlisle saved me. It's not an easy thing, not something you could easily forget."

"And your parents?"

"They had already died from the disease. I was alone. That was why he chose me. In all the chaos of the epidemic, no one would realize I was gone," He reminisced.

"How did he…save you?" I asked staring at him.

"It was difficult. Not many of us have the restraint necessary to accomplish it. But Carlisle has always been the most humane, the most compassionate of us…I don't think you could find his equal throughout all history. For me, it was merely very painful," I cringed at the idea of him being in pain. I could tell that he was done talking about the subject, but I still had other questions I needed answered.

"So you must be dying, then, to become…" I didn't say the word, but he knew what I was talking about.

"No, that's just Carlisle. He would never do that to someone who had another choice," I had another choice, and it was obvious that Edward would never willingly give me what I wanted, if being a vampire was what I wanted. "Enough about me, Bella, I want to hear about you."

"Well, my life isn't half as interesting as yours," I laughed nervously. I didn't want to talk about my life; I tried to do that as little as possible.

"I highly doubt that," He smiled gorgeously. "Why don't you tell me about your life in Phoenix?"

"It's not that different from my life here," I lied. My life in Phoenix was unquestionably different. "Minus the vampires."

He could tell that I was trying to avoid the subject, but he was determined to get something out of me. He knew it would just have to wait until later.

"Where are we?" I still had no idea where we were going. We were both dressed up nicely and driving to Seattle. What could we possibly be doing?

"We are just entering Seattle," He told me. The weather was pretty decent for the Olympic Peninsula; it wasn't raining, just a little foggy.

"Is there any chance you'll tell me where we're going?" I pleaded. I wasn't a big fan of surprises.

"We're almost there, Bella," He flashed me a smile that made my heart skip a beat, which I was sure he heard. "I think you can wait another five minutes." He parallel parked the car on the side of the street and quickly got out and opened my door for me, "We have to walk just a short while."

He stayed close to me, only an inch or two away, but he was careful not to touch me or let me get too far away from him. We made small talk, mostly about how I was enjoying school and his work at the hospital. He was very charming, and I can't believe I ever thought that he could be human. He walked with so much fluidity and grace and talked in a way that it was clear that he was not from this century. He glowed in a way I never could and he looked like an angel. I could never mistake him as a human again, despite how much the Cullens tried to blend in.

We had walked a block and a half when I saw it. Tons of people poured into the theater and a large marquee was lit up advertising the performance tonight. It read:

**The Pacific Northwest Ballet Presents**

**Giselle**

My face drained of blood. He was taking me to the ballet. He was taking _me_ to the _ballet_. I couldn't believe it. "I can't go in there."

"What do you mean?" His brow furrowed.

"I--I just can't," I tried to explain. I couldn't tell him, no matter how much I wanted to in that moment. It hurt too much.

"Bella," He gently rested his ice cold hand on the side of my face and I leaned into it, savoring the feeling of his skin on mine. "I thought you would like it."

"I do, Edward.." I didn't. I hated it, but I couldn't tell him that. "Lets just go in."

It made him happy, so I did it. That was me. Giving up my own happiness for the happiness of others, but I hadn't always been like that.

* * *

Giselle had always been one of my favorite ballets, despite the end where Giselle dies and leaves the Duke grieving. It was beautiful and I loved it, but not anymore. Ballet wasn't part of my life anymore, I was just doing this to make Edward happy. That was what I kept trying to tell myself as I found myself actually enjoying the ballet. I even realized I was smiling half way through the Grande Pas Allegro. After a while, I stopped caring that I had sworn off ballet and I gave in to it. I was absorbed in the story of the peasant Giselle who fell in love with Albretrcht, a duke in disguise as a commoner. When it was over, I was sad to leave, but I had to go back to the real world, a world where I didn't love ballet and it wasn't part of me. Edward led me out of the crowded theater and I took one last look at the stage while Giselle and Albretrcht took their final bows and I almost cried.

"Why did you quit?" Edward asked, his voice full of anguish, once we had walked outside into the cool, night air.

"I told you. Ballet is not a part of my life anymore," I heard myself reply robotically. It didn't even sound like me. It was like a sound bite playing over and over every time somebody even mentioned ballet.

"I don't understand," He wasn't used to not being able to read minds. "What happened you just woke up one morning and decided that it was a waste of your time? Decided to waste your talent?"

"How do you know I had talent? You never even saw me do anything," I was on the defensive. It had been months since I had talked about this and not with someone who cared like Edward did.

"I saw that look on your face tonight, that goofy, happy look. Don't deny it. You loved every minute of that performance and you were sad to leave. If you're going to tell me something about not dancing, at least tell me the truth, Bella. It's not because you didn't love it. I can see that much."

"Well, what if I don't want it to be the truth? What I want is to wake up and see my mom again, for my life to go back to when it all made sense, but I won't and it's all my fault, all of it," I had finally done it, I had told someone.

"What?" Edward was confused by my words. "What's your fault?"

"My mom, the accident, the fact that she's dead," I spewed out. The tears were starting to well over in my eyes. "She got scraped off the side of some highway because of me, because of my stupid audition, because she was rushing because I made her promise to come, and when the called my name, I was mad at her because…I needed her to be there and she wasn't! She was _dying_ while I was _dancing_ and I was mad at her and I'm sorry, I'm so sorry…"

It had at long last come out in the open, all my secrets, my past, everything, including all of my tears. I hadn't cried in months, now, all of my pent up emotions had finally burst out. Edward grabbed my face between his hands as a I sobbed and gently stroked the side of my cheek.

"Listen, it is not your fault that she died, or that she was rushing," He tried to explain to me, looking me deep in the eyes. "She cared about you, and she just wanted to be there for you."

"That's what makes it so bad," I jumped in. "She always wanted what was right for me. I wanted to be the prima ballerina…I had to be, and I didn't care if it took all of her money and all of her spare time. It was my stupid audition and my stupid dream and it _killed_ her! And all she wanted was for it to come true."

I shook Edward's hands off me and turned away from him. I hated for anyone, especially Edward to see me crying, but I couldn't stop. I was past the point of no return and maybe crying would actually do me some good.

"I bet she would still want it to come true," He turned me around to face him, pushing the hair away from my eyes in the process. "She wouldn't want you to give that up."

"I know, it's just that…I don't think that I can do it without her."

"What do you want?" He grabbed my shoulders softly. "Do you want to do it, Bella? I mean you. Do you want ballet?"

I shook my head trying to hold back more tears, "Yes."

"Then, it's all you," He said melodiously. "You are the one who is going to have to make it happen. You are the one who's going to have to make the dream come true."

He pulled me into his arms slowly and I cried as he rubbed my back in a soothing motion.

* * *

Okay, you read! Now, review!


	6. Vampires, Werewolves, and Psychics,Oh My

Hello, everyone! It has been such a long time since I updated, and I am super sorry for that. A lot has been going on with school lately, but things are starting to wind down so I should have more time to update this story. This chapter has been a work in the making for at least a month, and I hope everyone enjoys it!

Please review afterwards. The more reviews I have, the more motivated I am to post new chapters.

Vi

Oh, and I don't own Twilight or the PNBS or PNBC.

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"And arabesque. There you go, Isabella! Make sure to keep your back leg straight, ah, there. Yes, that is beautiful. Keep up the good work."

I held my pose as Madame Holman corrected my posture and observed my arabesque. I had just started classes at the Pacific Northwest Ballet School a little over a week ago, and getting back into the routine of things was painful. I had not danced in a little over six months and now that I was dancing again there was bound to be some pain. My feet had grown accustomed to not wearing Pointe shoes and it was almost excruciating to dance in them now. My muscles ached all over and it felt like learning how to go en Pointe all over again, but training at the Pacific Northwest Ballet School was worth it.

The Pacific Northwest Ballet School, or PNBS as most people called it, was located in Seattle and run by the Pacific Northwest Ballet Company. It is one of the leading schools in the country and I was just lucky enough to get a spot in some of the classes. Right now, I was taking seven classes a week. Five technique classes on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday from five o'clock to six-thirty, one Pointe variations class on Tuesday from six-thirty to seven-thirty, and one Pas de deux class on Thursday from six-thirty to seven-thirty. It was a lot, but I had taken just as many, if not more, classes in Phoenix. I was also practicing on my own free time at home on the wood floor in our house. It was almost embarrassing how out of shape I was and I had to limber up some more.

Edward and Alice were there for me through it all. They drove me to classes in Seattle, waited and watched in the room usually reserved for parents, and took me home on most days. Occasionally, Jasper came with them. I was lucky to have great friends like them, but something, actually someone, was missing and that was Rosalie. She had been rather frigid to me ever since she found out I knew her family's secret. I really, truly missed her, but Alice and Emmett both reassured me that I just needed to give her some space and she would come around in her own time.

I finished my technique class with a reverence and I quickly relaxed and wiped the sweat off my forehead. Alice and Edward were watching in the window of the parents' waiting room and I was ready to go home and fall down in my bed. I was exhausted.

"Isabella, would you mind if I spoke with you for a minute?" Madame Holman came up to me before I could leave the classroom. She always insisted on calling me Isabella even after I told her time and time again that my name was Bella.

"I don't mind," I assured her. Everyone else had already left the classroom. It was late and most people, myself included, had schoolwork to do.

"I would just like to tell you how beautifully I think you dance for being out for six months," She smiled warmly at me. Madame Holman was a wonderful instructor and I really did enjoy having her. She was not overly critical, but she didn't sugar coat anything either. "You know that we have the production of Swan Lake coming up soon and I think you should try out. If you work hard, I think that you could be ready for at least the role of a little cygnet."

"I'll have to think about it," I told her. I had only just started back and it was going to take a lot of work to at least be ready to be a little swan, or cygnets as they are called.

"Yes, just get back to me on it, and remember, if you do decide to tryout, I will be here to help," She assured me before letting me go.

I threw on a pair of sweat pants and a matching jacket over my black leotard and pink tights and carefully pulled my Pointe shoes off my feet. There were blisters, bruised toe nails, and calluses coming up, but these were the feet of a ballerina and all ballerinas' feet looked similar to mine.

Alice bombarded me with questions about Swan Lake the moment I entered the waiting room. She wanted to know what I thought about the ballet and who all was I trying out against.

"Alice, I haven't even decided if I'm going to audition or not," I laughed as she led the way to Edward's car which was parked about a block away. There was limited parking where we practiced.

"You definitely should," She squealed. "I can see it now, Bella Swan as Odette, the Swan Princess."

"I highly doubt that," Odette was a role that would go to a girl who hadn't dropped ballet for six months, not one that was just starting up again. "Tryouts are in two months and there is no way I'll be ready to play Odette."

"You've played Odette before, haven't you?" She asked. Edward looked at me surprised before his facial expression melted into something else. I could only guess what Alice was telling him in her mind.

"Yes, along time ago," I sighed. "It takes a lot of time to get back into the routine of things. I'm so out of shape it's not even funny. I'm surprised the other girls aren't laughing at me in class."

Edward snorted indignantly and I looked at him strangely, "If you're out of shape, Bella, then what is in shape? You are such a beautiful dancer, everyone could barely keep their eyes off of you during that last class. You just don't see yourself properly, and you don't hear what the other girls are thinking about you. They are in awe of your talent."

"If you're this good out of shape, I'd hate to see you when you are in shape," Alice laughed. Her laugh was like the tinkling of bells and I couldn't help but smile when I heard it.

We got to Edward's shiny, silver Volvo and Edward through my dance bag, which he had been carrying, into the backseat before getting in the car and zooming off through Seattle. I sat in the passenger seat beside him and Alice was in the backseat. I always felt bad when they came to Seattle with me. I was putting them out of their way.

"You know you don't have to do this," I sighed as Edward maneuvered his way swiftly through the crowded streets of Seattle.

"What?" Edward asked. He hadn't been expecting my question and I was pretty sure that Alice had been telling him something through her mind.

"You don't have to take me to Seattle. I can drive myself, you know. I'm not your responsibility."

"Bella, you're really silly sometimes," Alice giggled. That was all she said, as if me being silly was an explanation.

"We don't feel like we have to take you, we want to," Edward explained. He always had a knack for making me feel better.

"You aren't a burden to us," Alice chimed in. "We know that we don't have to take you, but Edward and I just like watching you dance. Like he said earlier, you dance beautifully. Oh, and Edward doesn't feel comfortable letting you go off by yourself in a big city like Seattle."

I rolled my eyes, but I was happy with her answer, "Edward, you do know that Phoenix is about three times bigger than Seattle. I can take care of myself just fine."

"Bella, we aren't the only vampires in the world," Edward said, his topaz eyes darkening.

"Oh," I don't know why I hadn't thought of that before, but then again, this whole vampire thing was new to me. "How many vampires are there exactly?"

"Less than humans, but there are a decent amount of us," He answered. "But most of our kind don't associate with humans. It is too hard on them. They tend to stay outside the city limits and wait till night to make any moves."

I wasn't quite sure what to say to that. It had never hit me that there were other vampires besides the Cullens. It was just too surreal to think that I might have run into a vampire on the street before or I could have gone to school with someone who was a vampire. Now that I knew they existed, anything was possible.

"Don't worry," Alice smiled. "Not many vampires come around Forks often and if they do, we make sure they stay clear of the town."

Edward and Alice dropped me off at my house and I went inside and collapsed on my bed. I tried not to fall asleep. I had Trig homework, a European History project on French kings, and a term paper to proof-read, but I was so tired I could barely keep my eyes open. It was useless to fight it and I drifted off into sleep where a weird dream overtook me.

In my dream, I was standing out on the beach, probably First Beach in La Push, but I hadn't been there in forever, since I was a young child. It was windy and the sun wasn't out, but it wasn't raining. Behind me, stood Edward and behind him was his whole family, and they were all smiling at me and waving there hands for me to come over to them, but I couldn't move my feet. I wanted so much to go over to them, but I couldn't.

I yelled to Edward for help, but somehow, he couldn't hear me. I looked around and I saw Jacob and behind him were members of his tribe, Billy and others I had never met before. I motioned to him for help, but they weren't smiling at me like the Cullens were. They had angry looks on their tan faces and I couldn't help but be scared of the way they were looking at me.

Jacob walked over to me and I noticed that all the Cullens' faces changed. They were now staring at him and his tribe with looks of hatred and repulsion. Jacob put his hand on my shoulder and it was so warm, unnaturally warm, that it almost burned me, the complete opposite of Edward's hand. This move seemed to make the Cullens', especially Edward, even more angry and Edward stalked toward us quickly, his eyes narrowed at Jake.

There were no words exchanged between them, but Edward cringed and I knew that Jake knew he could read his mind and there was no telling what he was saying to Edward. Edward growled fiercely after a minute of this silent exchange and the tension seemed to grow more and more. Suddenly, I was pushed out of the way and into the cold water. It was so quick it took me a good minute to process what was happening.

A dog, no, a large, russet colored wolf was fighting Edward, I had no idea who was going to win.

I woke up panting and covered in a cold sweat. I threw the covers off me and sat up in the bed, trying to regain full consciousness. My dream was strange and I wasn't sure what to make of it. I tried to reassure myself that it was simply a dream, but something was there that told me it wasn't only that. I wasn't sure if I should tell someone about the dream, but who could I tell? I couldn't tell Jacob, he would just think I was strange and that there was something wrong with me. I couldn't tell Edward, I just couldn't. Rosalie was mad at me and would barely speak to me so that ruled her out. Emmett wasn't exactly the type of person I could talk to about something like this, and Alice would probably go off and blab to Edward. I wasn't sure if I wanted to tell Carlisle and Esme that I saw in a dream, that was very real by the way, their son getting ripped apart by a huge wolf. So, that only left one person, Jasper. Jasper, as I have been told, has the ability to manipulate emotions and according to Alice, he is very sensitive so maybe he will be able to make some sense of my strange dream. Now, that I had decided who I was going to talk to, I had to figure out how and when.

It was going to be hard to get around Alice. She probably already knew that I had decided to talk to Jasper about something and was giving him a heads up right now. Edward would more than likely read it in her mind and then my cover would be blown, but fortunately, I could use Jasper's power to my greatest advantage. I would just claim that I had been feeling stressed lately and that it might be good if Jasper calmed me down a bit. There, that was a good idea, and maybe Alice wouldn't see right through it.

The next afternoon at the Cullen house, I put my plan in motion. I'd been trying to act antsy all day, like something was bothering me, and I was doing a very good job of convincing Edward. He couldn't read my mind so he had no idea what I was thinking. Alice, on the other hand, knew that something was up, but I kept changing my mind on when to ask Jasper so she could never see anything fully.

"Bella, are you okay?" Edward asked nervously. I think a bit of my edginess might have rubbed off on him.

"Yeah, I'm just feeling a little stressed with ballet and all. It's really getting to me," I answered. Technically, it wasn't a lie. Ballet really was stressing me out, but the thought of that dream was making it even worse.

"Why don't you go talk to Jasper about it?" Edward suggested. This was great, I even got him to suggest it. "I'm sure he can make you feel a little bit better."

"Are you sure you don't mind?" Alice, Edward, and I had been watching TV, and I didn't want to seem to eager to go.

"No, go ahead. I was just thinking about going hunting. Edward, would you like to join me?" Thank you, Alice. Now Edward was out of the house and he wouldn't be able to hear the conversation.

"We'll be back soon, Bella," Edward looked into my eyes and I almost felt bad for lying to him, but it was for his own good.

I quickly went upstairs to Jasper's room where he was inside toying around with a computer. He was a bit of a computer wiz from what I had heard and he could hack into just about anything. He, of course, heard me coming and was ready for whatever I had coming for him.

"Bella?" He asked me. He knew how I was feeling so it wasn't much of a secret that I was worried about something. "Are you okay?"

I let it spill out, all of it. I told him every single detail of my dream, from the beginning at the beach to the fight scene at the end. He never interrupted me and he listened closely to everything I said. It felt good to get it all out, but feeling good also might have come for Jasper's calming waves. When I finished with my dream, he sat for a minute to think things through before he started telling me what he thought my dream was about.

"Jacob told you the Quileute legends, right?" Jasper questioned me, and I nodded. "He told you that the Quileutes are thought to come from wolves, right? And how we are there natural enemies?"

"Wait a minute, you think-" This was all coming together in my head now.

"I don't think, Bella, I know," Jasper replied calmly. He always had a strong hand on his emotions and right now mine were boiling.

"Jake and his tribe are werewolves?!"

"Not all of them," He explained. "Just a couple. They're not like the werewolves you see in horror movies. They're more like shape shifters, and they can become wolves when ever they want to, not just during a full moon. Young werewolves are very dangerous, Bella. Remember that."

"This is just too weird," My brain couldn't comprehend all this information.

"Well, just a couple of weeks ago, you didn't know vampires existed and now, you're finding out about werewolves," Jasper put me at ease some more with his handy little ability. I would probably be in a full scale freak out without him.

"Is there anything else I need to know about? Witches, demons, aliens?" I questioned him and he just laughed.

Jasper paused a second, contemplating something. "Bella, have you thought that maybe you're a little clairvoyant?"

"No," I was surprised to hear him suggest that. "What would make you think that?"

"You're dream did have a lot to do with the wolves that you didn't know existed. It's either a really big coincidence or something else is going on."

"I don't know, Jasper."

"If you have anymore dreams, Bella, please come talk to me about them. Remember that I'm here for you," He placed a hand on my shoulder and I felt relaxed immediately.

* * *

I sat in my room doing homework on my bed. I was slightly relieved to hear what my dream was about, but it didn't make me feel any better about the werewolves. Jasper had told me they were dangerous and to stay away from them; Jacob and his friends had never seemed dangerous the times I had seen them down in La Push with Charlie or when he and Billy came to watch football sometimes. I had to admit, he was huge, but he was so funny and sweet that I didn't feel like he could or would hurt me. Besides, staying away from Jacob wasn't really an option. He and Billy came down almost every week to watch some of the games with us. I couldn't just say 'you can't come here anymore, Jacob, because my vampire friends said you were a dangerous werewolf.' I would sound crazy.

That topic was currently boggling me and causing my head to pound so I decided to try and think about something else, like that fact that I needed new Pointe shoes. The shoes I wore now, Gaynor Minden's, were great, but now that I was dancing again, they were getting a little worn out. I got on my laptop and searched around for a dancewear store somewhere nearby. The closest one was in Port Angeles and hopefully they would have a full stock. I also need to pick up a couple of new black leotards and pink tights.

My phone rang once I had logged off the computer. I checked the caller I.D. and it was Alice. "Hey."

"Hey, Bella, when do you want to go shoe shopping?" Of course she would have seen it.

"You do know that I'm not shopping for regular shoes, right? I'm shopping for Pointe shoes."

"How many times do I have to tell you? Shopping is shopping."

I laughed before replying. "Is this afternoon okay with you? I'd like to go ahead and get them as soon as possible. I like to break them in before I have to dance in them."

"That's fine with me," Alice chirped. "I'll pick you up around 3."

It was 1:30 now so I had awhile before I needed to start getting ready, but I decided to go ahead and take a nice, long bath before I left. Lord knows I needed one. The stress of ballet, school, and knowing that your friends are vampires and werewolves was a lot to handle, but it wasn't too much. I soaked in the bath for a long time, just letting my muscles loosen up.

After my bath, I took extra time blow drying my hair and straightening it. I normally wasn't this high maintenance with my beauty routine, but I had time to waste. I kept my make-up natural with just some powder, blush, a soft pink eye shadow, and mascara. I picked out a gray, long sleeved, knitted dress with a belt to wear so I would be able to see my legs and how my shoes looked. I put on a pair of red flats to wear with it.

I finished getting ready just in time. Alice pulled up in the drive way and honked the horn; we had a long trip to Port Angeles ahead of ourselves and there was no time to waste. I grabbed my purse and ran out to Alice's Porsche 911 Turbo, her pride and joy.

"Hey, Bella," Alice chimed as I got in the car. I smiled at her as she floored the gas and took off for Port Angeles. When Alice smiled back at me, I knew she knew about my conversation with Jasper.

"You know, don't you?" I groaned. It was only a matter of time before Edward found out.

"Of course I know. It's hard to keep a secret in the Cullen house," She said. "But don't worry, I won't tell Edward if you don't want me to."

"Thanks."

"But if you don't mind me asking, why don't you want Edward to know?" Alice asked out of curiosity.

"Well," I started, "in my dream, Edward…died. It just seemed so real and…I just can't tell him that I had a dream where he died."

Alice nodded. "Jasper told me that he thinks you might be a little clairvoyant."

"I don't think so. It was just a dream, and it wasn't like I had never heard the Quileute legends before," I explained. "Maybe my brain just connected it together subconsciously before I could even realize it."

"Maybe," Alice and I didn't talk about my dream or my conversation with Jasper for the rest of our trip to Port Angeles.

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Thanks for reading! Now, review!


	7. That's Gotta Hurt

Okay, this is just a short, little chapter that I felt needed to be done.

To explain a couple of things that might not have been presented very clearly,

**Yes, the Cullens are vampires, but Bella is not Edward's singer. She is just has regular human blood to him. In other words, she is just like any other Jessica and Angela of the world, except for the fact that he can't read her mind.**

**A couple of people wanted to know about Liz. Liz is a person from Bella's past that you will find out about in this chapter. This is not the end of Liz's story; she will actually play a big role in some of the later chapters.**

Now that we have these things cleared up, on with the story! Oh and I only own Liz. I don't own anything Twilight, it wall belongs to the lovely Mrs. Meyer.

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"That is just disgusting."

"No, Emmett, it's not. It's just me stretching," Emmett was watching me stretch. I was over at the Cullen house that afternoon, and I could feel my muscles tightening and I knew that I needed to stretch them out just a bit. I had done a few heel stretches and now I was doing my over-splits.

"That shouldn't be possible," His face contorted into a look of pain as I went down into a right split. I lifted up my right leg and put it up on the wall making me do an over-split. "Ew, Bella; You are freakishly bendy."

I just laughed and continued to stretch out my muscles, doing my other over-split and some other stretches to improve my ballet turnout. Emmett just sat there and stared at me looking like he was in so much pain that he was about to die. It really didn't hurt anymore. When I had first started doing ballet again, it was painful, but now, my body was practically numb to the pain. I was getting used to the stress again.

"Hey, Bell--ooh," Jasper came into the room a second later, but upon seeing me stretching, he stopped and his face changed to the very same one Emmett had on his face. "Doesn't that hurt?"

"Nope," I laughed as I pushed up out of my split. Jasper cringed.

"Anyways, I need to talk to you for a minute. Do you mind?" He asked, pulling me to my feet.

"No," He led me outside into the backyard. I had only been out here a couple of times, but it was very beautiful. "What do you need to talk to me about?"

"I just wanted to see if you had been having anymore dreams?" He asked.

This was going to be a hard question to answer. The truth was that I had been having more dreams, but not ones about Edward. They were about three other people who were obviously vampires, but I had never met them before. I couldn't lie to Jasper; he would sense it, so I just went ahead and told him the truth. "I actually have, but they aren't the same as before."

"What are they about?"

"It's about these two male vampires and one female. There isn't really anything special about the dreams. Nothing ever really happens in them," That really was the truth. Mostly my dreams were just these three vampires wondering around in the woods or interacting with each other, but they still scared me. "These vampires, though, they aren't like you. They have red eyes."

Jasper nodded his head, deep in thought. He looked really worried.

"Is something the matter?" I asked. I had never seen Jasper look this troubled before, and it concerned me.

"I wasn't going to tell you this, Bella, but I believe that I have to," He paused and took a deep breath. "Alice has been seeing these three also. She believes that they will be in town within the next two weeks."

I was confused. Not only was I starting to believe that there was a possibility that I could be clairvoyant, but didn't the Cullens normally take care of the vampires that came around? "Alice said that sometimes vampires do come around Forks, but you guys just keep them away from the town. I'm not sure I understand the problem."

"Well, you see, Alice has been sensing some trouble. We aren't sure if it will actually happen yet, but we are just going to be overly cautious for the next few weeks," He explained. "But don't worry about it. It isn't your problem."

"I'll make sure to tell you if I have any more strange dreams," I smiled. I could feel Jasper relaxing me right away and I was very grateful for it.

"Thanks, Bella," I turned to walk away, but Jasper called out to me again. "Oh, I think Edward is waiting for you in the living room."

I smiled and quickly ran inside, anxious to see Edward. It was a very strange feeling. I could almost feel the little butterflies fluttering around inside my stomach, and I knew that wouldn't be going away. I felt that way every time someone said Edward's name or when I was around him. When he smiled at me, my heart felt like it was about to literally jump out of my chest, and I was pretty sure he could hear it. I was so happy all the time that I almost couldn't bear it. Alice was positive that I was in love with him, but was I? I had never really been in a relationship before, much less been in love. If this was what being in love felt like, though, I was fine with that.

"Bella," Edward breathed as I walked into the room. He was sitting on the couch with one of his medical textbooks that he had probably read a thousand times before.

"Edward," I smiled. He smiled back at me and I felt my knees go weak. I was so pathetic, but it didn't really bother me. "What are you up to?"

"Oh, nothing really," He closed the book and put it on the coffee table in front of the couch. "I was just wondering if you would like to do something with me tonight."

"Sure," I was up for doing pretty much anything as long as I was with him. "What do you have in mind?"

"It's a surprise."

"Edward, you know I hate surprises," He laughed. "Why don't you just tell me?"

"Because that would take the fun out of it all," He had an amused look on his gorgeous face. "Now, if you are going, I'm sure Alice is waiting right upstairs waiting to pounce on you and give you something to wear tonight."

I huffed at him, but I wasn't really mad. I could never be mad at Edward.

"Where are you going?" I asked as he got up from the couch. I rose, too.

"I have to go to the hospital for a little while. They're short staffed in the emergency room and I offered to fill in for a couple of hours," I pouted. I didn't want him to leave. I wanted to sit in the living room with him for the rest of the afternoon just talking about anything and everything. "Don't pout, Bella. I'll be back soon."

I blushed deeply. I didn't want him to know that I was so attached to him. He smiled at me again and tenderly placed his hand on the back of my neck and traced down the side of it with his long fingers. I shivered at his touch.

* * *

"Bella, you are going to love tonight!"

Edward was right. Alice had bombarded me the moment I went up the stairs. She had a hundred questions for me and she was telling me anything and everything about tonight, except for what we were doing exactly. She managed to avoid that every time I asked her.

Currently, I was sitting in Alice's bathroom having my hair pulled and teased and brushed so much that my head was starting to get sore. By this time in our friendship, I was used to Alice dressing me up and doing my hair and make, and, besides, I did feel bad that she didn't get to remember ever doing this in her human life.

I sighed, thinking about Rosalie and wishing that she was here. Alice seemed to guess what I was thinking about. "It's okay. She'll come around soon. I'm sure of it."

"I know," I said. Well, I didn't really know, I was just hoping. "It's just that I miss her."

"Rose is just a little stubborn. You know her," Alice patted the hair on my head softly. "She misses you though. She's just a little worried, that's all."

There was nothing I could really do about the Rosalie situation. I had already tried to talk to her, but that didn't turn out well. I tried to tell her that I would never tell anyone about their secret, but she just ignored me and gave me the cold shoulder the entire time I sat there with her. It had ended up with me crying and Edward yelling at her. Needless to say, I felt bad about that.

"So how is ballet going?" Alice said, trying to get my mind off of things. "Are you getting excited for Swan Lake tryouts?"

I smiled. Ballet had been going very well lately. I was really catching back up quickly, and I had decided to audition for Swan Lake. I was a little nervous about the actual tryout, though. I would be competing against people who have danced way longer than I have. "I am excited. I just hope I get a good part."

"Oh, I'm sure you will," Alice smiled. She had seen something, but she was keeping it a secret from me. I just let her keep it. I would find out sooner or later.

My cell phone started ringing suddenly. I jumped up out of the chair Alice had sat me in and went into her bedroom to grab my phone off her bed.

"Hello," I answered, not looking at the caller id like I usually do.

"Bella, it's Liz. It's so good to talk to you again," The voice on the other line said. Liz had been one of my best friends in Phoenix. We had known each other since we were two and our mothers had enrolled us at the same ballet school. After the accident, I cut all ties to ballet from my life, including Liz and all of my other friends I had gained from dancing throughout the years, but lately, Liz and I had been talking again. I really did miss her. We had always had a healthy competition going on to see who could be the best. In my classes now, I didn't really know anyone and they never made an effort to talk to me.

"Liz, what's up?" I asked.

"Oh, nothing much. I just felt like talking to you," She said. I could tell that she was sad. Liz had always been easy to read. "I haven't seen you in forever."

"I know," I could feel a lump forming in my throat. I really did feel bad for the way I had treated my friends back home. After my mom died, I stayed in Phoenix a little while with Phil, my step-dad, but it was just getting too hard for me to be there, and Phil, who was minor league baseball player, had to travel a lot so I decided it was best to go stay with my dad. When I moved to Forks, I hadn't even said good-bye to any of them.

"We all miss you," Her voice sounded thick, like she was holding back tears. "Even Mrs. Levine does."

Mrs. Levine had been one of our strict ballet teachers. No one really cared for her much. "Wow," I laughed. "I started dancing again."

"You did? Bella, that's great. I knew you wouldn't be able to stop for long; you love it too much. Are you still thinking about going professional?"

That wasn't something I was quite sure about. Before, I knew exactly what I wanted and that was to be a professional ballerina in one of the world's leading companies, but now, I wasn't sure of anything anymore. In fact, the only thing I was sure of was that I still wanted to dance. "I don't know."

"Well, I'm trying out for Juilliard soon," She squealed.

"I know you'll make it," Liz and I had always dreamed about Juilliard growing up. We had mapped out our futures centered on us going to school there after we graduated from high school.

"You should tryout."

"I don't think so, Liz. I'm just getting back into things."

"Oh, come on, Bella," She sighed. "We both know that you want it. Just give it a chance."

"I guess you're right…"

"Of course, I am," Liz laughed jokingly. "I'm always right."

I got off the phone with Liz and thought about things for a moment. Did I really want Juilliard? Or was that still just a part of my past that I couldn't get back? I had a lot of things to think about.

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So, Bella has a lot of things to contemplate. Does she want to go to Juilliard? Does she really love Edward? Give me your opinions.


	8. Things to Think About

Sorry it had been so long since I posted, but I've been extremely busy with school and everything. I've also had some writer's block, but I think I might be getting over that right now. Thanks for reading and reviewing my story and I'd appreciate it more if even more of you reviewed and told me what you thought of my story (no flames, please!). There is only going to be a couple of more chapters if everything is going as I have planned it, but who knows. So here is chapter 8!

AN- I don't own anything!

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While I sat in Alice's room waiting for Edward to get home from the hospital, I tried to avoid the thinking about a few things in particular.

As a young girl, I had planned out how I wanted my future to be very meticulously. I would graduated high school, go to Juilliard with Liz by my side, and go on to be the best prima ballerina there ever was, dancing at places like the Bolshoi Ballet and the Paris Opera Ballet. When my mother died, I had altered my plans and left them behind, but now that I was dancing again, those dreams of Juilliard and the glamorous lifestyle of a ballerina had come back. Then, I had to factor in the Cullens. Alice had seen it; I would be one of them someday. Where did that leave my famous ballet career? Where did Edward come into place during all of this? About these things, I wasn't exactly sure.

Come to think of it, I wasn't even sure if I was in love with Edward or not. Sure, he made my knees feel weak every time I was around him. My heartbeat accelerated to a deadly pace every time he said my name. Just thinking about not seeing him made me want to cry, but that did not mean that I was in love with him.

Alice had been trying to convince me for weeks that I was in love with her brother, but I was doubtful. I had liked guys before; I knew what puppy love was like. I was convinced that this _thing _with Edward was just some passing faze that I would get over in a couple of months, but Alice wasn't ready to let it go. Every moment that she could, she spent pushing me together with her brother, which believe me, made for some very awkward situations, such as the time I walked in on Edward changing (I was mortified and wouldn't speak to Alice or Edward for almost two days.)

I wasn't sure how Edward felt about me. There were times that he wouldn't leave me alone, always making sure that I wasn't too cold or hungry or tired, but there were other moments when I could tell that he was avoiding me. I didn't know why, and Alice assured me that I was just imagining it.

I was sure that I had a crush on Edward, however. Whether I loved him or not was a different question. I knew because I was just too darned giggly every time I was around him. It was like I lost 10 I.Q. points whenever he was in the room. After about ten minutes or so of being around him, I usually started to be my regular self gain. Also, I just wanted to be around him all the time. The way I was acting was kind of sickening.

"Oh, Bella, you're going to have so much fun tonight," Alice gushed as she ran up beside me and sat down on the loveseat in her room.

Unlike every other time Alice had made me over, I was dressed in a set of warm and casual clothes, namely a thick dark blue sweater and a pair of warm black pants. I could only guess that I would really need these because Alice would never send me out in something like what I was wearing to go to any place normal.

I sighed. "You really aren't going to tell me where I'm going?"

"Sorry, sweetheart. Edward made me promise not to tell," She smiled sincerely. "But I can tell you that you might want to bring your coat with you. It might be a tad bit chilly tonight."

"Fine," I was a little bitter that she wouldn't crack so I decided to give her the silent treatment the rest of the time before I left. Alice must have sensed I was in a bad mood so she just left me to relax in her room and mull over the other things I had to think about.

The other large thing I had on my mind was whether or not I should try out for Juilliard or not. I had already accepted ballet back into my life, and, for that, I was extremely happy, but I wasn't sure if I would ever be able to have the same dreams as I had before. A lot of things have changed since I quit ballet.

"Bella, Edward's here!" Alice's voice floated to me through the doorway.

When I heard those words, as cheesy as it sounds, I felt like all my problems went away, or just into a place where I wouldn't have to think about them until the night was over.

I hurriedly rushed down the stairs, anxious to see Edward's face again, and I nearly ran right into Emmett, who just laughed at me and continued on his journey up the stairs. As I got to the last step, I looked up and there was Edward standing there in all his glory. The sun was setting and the last rays were shinning in dimly through the windows, illuminating his beautiful, marble-esque skin. He smiled at me and reached his hand out for me when suddenly he whipped his head around to look at Alice who was standing in the background beside the sofa.

"Alice, Alice," Jasper was shaking her, but she continued to have this strange, blank look on her face. "Alice, what do you see?"

Edward answered for her. "They're coming."

* * *

"Alice, are you sure?"

"Yes, Carlisle, I saw it," Her face was one of horror. "If only I had seen it sooner…"

"There's nothing we can do about that," Carlisle placed a reassuring hand on her petite shoulder. "It's not your fault."

These words did nothing to help Alice get over whatever was plaguing her. I myself wasn't sure what was going on and I had been there the whole time. I had gotten lost in Edward's mental conversation with everyone along with the vampire speed talking. I had a feeling that the Cullens were trying to hide something from me. As for my date with Edward (was it even a date?), it had been long forgotten. Whatever Alice had seen was obviously more important. I was disappointed, but I was more interested in finding out what was going on.

Edward had been by my side ever since the vision had happened. He was never close enough to touch me, but he made sure that I was never out of his sight. I was a little worried by that, but Jasper had been kind enough to was all of that away. Thinking about it, Edward wasn't the only one who had been watching me more intently. Everyone had been, even Rosalie. As my worry continued to rise to the surface again, I felt Jasper suppress it with another wave of calmness.

"What should we do?" Esme frowned. She looked completely distraught, a crease running down her forehead. I could only imagine how horrible Alice's vision had been.

"There's only one thing we can do," Edward spoke up for the first time; everyone looked at him to see what his answer would be. "Wait until they come to us."

"You can't be serious," Emmett groaned. "C'mon, just let me out there. Jasper, Edward, and I can take care of everything."

I turned to look at Edward to see what he was thinking about Emmett's plan, and he seemed to be seriously contemplating it before he looked at me again and shook his head.

"No, I won't leave Bella," He sighed and closed his eyes.

I had finally had enough, and Jasper wasn't paying close enough attention to my emotions to realize that everything I had been feeling in the last 30 minutes was bubbling to the surface. All of my excitement, fear, worry, and paranoia were now about to explode. "Would someone like to tell me what is going on here?"

I looked around the room we were in (Carlisle's study) and everyone seemed to be avoiding me, even Carlisle who had his head in his hands as he leaned over his desk.

After a few minutes, Alice finally spoke up. "Bella, I had a vision."

"Well, thank you, Captain Obvious. I already knew that," I wasn't in the mood to be treated like a baby. I wanted to know what exactly was going on and what it had to do with me.

"It was about those three vampires that we've been seeing."

I heard collective gasps around the room. Apparently Jasper had been true to his word, almost that is. He had told no one about my dreams, except for Alice.

"What do you mean by 'we've been seeing'?" Rosalie asked. She had been silent the whole time.

"Why don't you tell them, Bella," Jasper suggested. He had finally gotten a handle on my emotions again, and I could tell that he was trying to keep them tightly in check.

I took a deep breath. "I've been having these dreams lately…"

I told them every single thing, about my dream with Jacob turning into a wolf and about the dreams I had been having lately with the three vampires.

"I think she might have some type of foresight," Jasper said after I concluded my story.

I looked around the room waiting for some other type of response, but there was none. Everyone was just looking at me, and it was making me somewhat uncomfortable.

"Isn't this cool, Bella?" Alice was the only one who sounded happy about this.

"Alice, that isn't exactly the wording I would use right now," Edward's cool voice shot out at her. Alice shot him a look.

"Okay, can we just get back to why everyone is freaking out?" I sighed, running a hand through my hair.

"As I was saying, those three vampires that we've been seeing will be arriving in town tonight, and…"

Alice didn't have to continue for me to figure out what she was talking about. Someone was going to be killed tonight by those vampires. That's why Edward didn't want to leave me. He didn't want me to get hurt.

"What's going to happen, then?" I said after I had processed everything for a minute.

"We are going to go into town and try and confront them and stop them from hunting in town," Carlisle explained calmly.

"What about me?" I was scared. I hoped that I wouldn't have to go with them. As much as I loved the Cullens, I was scared of vampires that weren't like them-- the ones who drank human blood.

"You're going to stay here with me for the night," Edward replied. When he said this, my heart started beating rapidly. I was going to be alone with him _all _night.

"So you're all going? Except for me and Edward?"

"Yes," Alice smirked slightly. Even in a horrible situation such as this, Alice was trying to get Edward and me together.

I gulped slightly. I was scared, almost terrified of these horrible vampires, and I didn't want them to kill anybody. I was also terrified of being all by myself with Edward for whole night. Sure, I had been alone with him plenty of times before, but not for a whole night and under these circumstances.

"Don't worry, Bella," Alice came up beside me and wrapped her small arm around my waist. "Edward will take very good care of you. Won't you, Edward?"

"Alice," He just said that and she scampered off with Jasper to get ready for their mission of sorts. "Bella, you should probably call your father and tell him that you're staying over here for the night?"

Charlie, I had just now thought of him. What if they came after him? What if the Cullens didn't get there in time to save him?

"Alice is right," Edward admittedly grudgingly. "Don't worry; nothing bad will happen."

After I had called Charlie and told him that I was staying at the Cullens with Alice and warned him to lock the doors, I made my way to the living where everyone was assembling. Everyone minus Edward was dressed in all black. They kind of looked like something out of _Mission: Impossible _or one of those Bourne movies. It was almost comical how it looked.

Edward was communicating with Carlisle silently, and everyone else was quiet. No one looked nervous. I think I was more anxious than anyone else was, even the ones that were actually going to confront these vampires.

"It'll be alright, Bella," Esme smiled warmly. I kind of felt bad that I was the one who had to be comforted when she was the one who was actually in trouble.

"Thanks, Esme," I returned her smile as best as I could. I hugged her and whispered in her ear. "Be careful and take care of everyone."

She looked like if she could have cried, she would. She put her cold hand on my cheek in a motherly way and turned and followed the others out the door. Now, it was just me and Edward.

"Are you hungry?" He broke the ice. It was somewhat awkward between the two of us. I wasn't sure, but I thought his coolness towards me might have had something to do with my visions.

"Uh, yes, a little bit," I followed him in the kitchen.

"What would you like?" He asked.

"Oh, I don't know. Surprise me."

"I thought you didn't like surprises," He smiled slightly as he started pulling things out of the pantry.

"Well, on occasion, I can like them," I smiled back. He had, at vampire speed, already started cooking my dinner.

"I'll have to remember that," I was sure that he would. He always remembered everything.

After twenty minutes, in which I read one of Alice's fashion magazine, Edward finished cooking my dinner. He hadn't let me out of his sight, not even to go into the living room. So I sat at the kitchen table as he brought me a plate of wonderful smelling pasta.

"It's gnocchi," He placed it down in front of me. "I remembered that you had it when we went out to eat that night at La Bella Italia and that you had liked it."

The fact that he remembered that was touching. I was the one who had it and I didn't even remember that.

"Thank you, Edward," I said shyly. A small lump was forming in my throat. I didn't remember the last time someone had done something that special for me. "That was very sweet of you."

He sat down at the table beside me and I ate in silence. The gnocchi was extremely good, better than the kind I had at La Bella Italia. I was surprised that Edward could cook since he couldn't even eat, but I figured that he could do everything else, so why couldn't he cook?

"Why didn't you tell me, Bella?" I was surprised beyond belief when he said this after I had finished my dinner.

"Tell you what?"

"Tell me about your visions," He replied.

"They aren't visions, Edward," I sighed. "They are just dreams."

"That's not what Jasper and Alice think," Edward explained. He was completely calm when he said this, but I could tell he was hurt that I hadn't told him.

"I didn't think it was that big of a deal either, until lately when Jasper told me Alice had been having visions of those vampires, too," I told him. I figured it was time to open up to him. "Edward, I was scared. When I first had that dream about Jacob, I just didn't know what to do. I didn't know who to go."

"You can always come to me," He grasped my hand softly.

"The dream-- it just scared me," I told him. "I don't want you to get hurt."

"Believe me, Bella," He smiled reassuringly, "it's going to take a lot to hurt me."

We talked for a while, and I could tell that he was trying to get my mind off of things and he was doing a very good job of that. He told me everything I wanted him to: about his human life, how Carlisle saved him, and about the rest of his family. It was good to be so open with him, and for him to be open with me in return. I liked it, and I didn't want it to end. He was perfect, and even though we were together under horrible circumstances, it was perfect, too.

"You can sleep in Alice's room tonight, if that's alright," Edward led me up the stairs.

It was getting late and I was starting to get tired from all of the events that had been going on today. It had been an extremely long day. "That's fine," I yawned.

When we got to Alice's room, I practically collapsed in the large bed. I was too tired to change clothes and what I was wearing was comfortable and warm. I crawled under the covers and snuggled into bed when I remembered something: Edward. What was he going to do while I slept? I sat up and looked around the room and saw him sitting on Alice's loveseat reading one of his thick textbooks he always had with him. I just sank back down into bed. There was no way he was leaving me alone, and I was kind of glad that he wasn't going to.

Earlier in the day, I had been questioning whether or not I was in love with Edward. I had been almost sure that I wasn't, that it was just a faze and that I would get over it sooner or later, but now I was leaning the opposite way. I'm in love with Edward Cullen, and that is just about the only thing that I'm sure about.

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Thanks for reading, guys! Please review and I will update sooner!


	9. A Familiar Man

The night the Cullens had gone to confront the dangerous vampires had been hell. I had tossed and turned all night, nervous about what I would find when I woke up the next morning. What if someone had been hurt? What if someone had been killed? Those thoughts kept me up almost the whole night. It hadn't been until Edward had soothingly hummed to me to me that I had fallen asleep in the wee hours of the morning.

When I did wake up, things were as normal as they could be in the Cullen household. Emmett was downstairs playing video games in the living room while Alice sat on the couch painting her fingernails and reading one of her huge fashion magazines. Esme was in the kitchen cooking for me I could assume since vampires weren't able to eat. Jasper, I noticed on my way downstairs, was sitting at his computer. However, Edward, Carlisle, and Rosalie were no where to be found.

"Good morning, Bella," Alice smiled happily as I walked into the living room. It was if nothing at all had happened last night.

"Morning, Alice," I yawned. I was still a bit tired, but I was anxious to see Edward. "Where is everyone?"

"And by everyone, I assume you mean Edward," She laughed and I blushed knowing that she had caught me. "He left for the hospital with Carlisle earlier this morning. He had to cover a morning shift. Rosalie is out hunting if you were wondering where she was, too."

I sat down beside her on the couch, trying to think of a way to ask what had happened last night. Nothing bad must have happened, but I still wanted to know what had gone on. I had a right to know; this involved whole mess me, too.

"I know what you're about to ask, Bella," Alice chimed without looking up from her issue of Italian _Vogue._ Of course she would, that dang psychic.

"Well?" I said, waiting for her to give her answer.

"It really wasn't as big of a deal as we thought it would be. We just went into to town and located them and asked them not to hunt within the city limits," She shrugged. She made it sound like it had just been a regular old trip to the mall.

"So nothing happened, then?"

"Nothing happened, Bella," Alice put her magazine down in her lap and placed her newly manicured hand on my shoulder. "You don't have to worry about a thing."

I sighed. Alice seemed content with my reaction so she went back to intently reading her magazine, but I still had a feeling that she was hiding something from me.

"Beautiful job, Isabella," Madame Holman complimented me after I had gotten done performing the variation I had chosen to do for my audition for Swan Lake. I had chosen the variation from Giselle, Act 1. Giselle had always been my favorite ballets, and I felt as if I could relate well with the young, lovesick main character who fell in love with a man way above her station. "I have a feeling you will do well at auditions tomorrow. Just don't get too nervous."

"Thanks, Madame Holman, I'll try not to," I smiled while simultaneously wiping sweat off of my forehead. My nerves were starting to get the best of me. It had been a long time since I had auditioned for anything. I couldn't help but feel anxious. If I was extremely nervous now, I couldn't even think about what I would be like when it was my turn to audition tomorrow.

"That was so great, Bella!" Alice squealed once I had met her, Edward, and Jasper out in the waiting room. They had been watching me through the glass window the whole time. "You're a shoe-in for Odette."

I just roled my eyes as Edward took my bag from me like he always did. Alice did have visions and a couple of times she had hinted at me that she had seen which role I would get, but she would never tell me and I wasn't sure if I wanted to know or not. I wanted it to be surprise.

"How about we go out tonight?" Alice suggested as we made it to Edward's volvo.

"I don't know, Alice…Bella has an audition tomorrow," Edward told her. I was right there with him, agreeing with what he was saying. "I don't know if it's the best idea to keep her out tonight."

"Oh, don't be such a party pooper, Edward. Bella will be fine. Remember, I can see these things."

"Maybe Alice is right," Jasper agreed. "Bella, you are feeling a little tense. Maybe if you go out tonight, it will help you a bit with your nerves tomorrow."

Jasper did have a point. Maybe going out tonight would help. It had been a long time since we had actually done something besides staying at home and I was kind of ready to get back out there again. I looked at Edward to see what he thought.

"Whatever you want to do, Bella," I could tell that he didn't fully agree with what Jasper and Alice were saying, but he went along with it anyway.

"Well then, lets do something," I smiled and Alice squealed.

Back at my house, Alice stayed to help me get ready while Jasper and Edward returned to the Cullen house. She had decided that we should go clubbing at this place in downtown Seattle. Why she decided that, I have know idea. I had never been clubbing before and neither had Alice, or so she said, but I was looking forward to getting back out in the world again. Ever since my mother had died over half a year ago, I had been holding myself back, not getting out there and having fun anymore. Now that I was able to accpet her death and move on, I was ready to do something fun again.

"You are going to look so hot," Alice laughed as she continued to do god knows what to my hair and make up. "Edward is going to have to fight off all of those human boys tonight. I can just see it."

I wouldn't say it to Alice, but there was no competition when it came to other boys. Now that I knew Edward, I didn't want anyone else as cheesy as it was.

Alice had picked out a one-shoulder, ruched blue mini dress for me to wear. I wasn't sure where she got it because it definitely wasn't in my closet. I would never have picked anything like that out for myself. I was horrified just looking at it.

"There is no way in hell that I'm wearing that dress," I just stared at it. It was just too revealing for me, and there was no way I would be able to pull it off.

"Why not? This is a perfectly good dress, Bella, and I picked it out for you. You are going to wear it."

"Alice, it looks like something a hooker would wear."

"Bella, Bella, Bella, have I never told you this before?" She shook her head and sat me down on my bed before taking my hand and looking me in the eyes. "Sometimes, to get your man, you have to dress like a hooker."

Then she proceeded to, as quickly as she possibly could, rip off the clothes I was wearing and throw the horrible dress on me. I could only imagine how trashy and ridiculous I looked in the barely-there hooker dress.

"Wow," Alice whistled. "Edward is not going to be able to keep his eyes off of you tonight, or his hands!"

I just blushed and shoved my face down into my palms, wishing that I had never said yes to Alice's plea to go out tonight.

"Don't you want to look at yourself in the mirror?"Alice asked after she had forced me into a pair of black, strappy stillettos.

"No," I groaned. "I'd rather not see how much of a whore I look."

"Bella, you do not look like a whore," She forced me up and pushed me towards the full length mirror. "See, you just look extremely hot."

She was right, I did look pretty good. The dress was short so it showed off the legs I had earned through the many years of ballet, and it was extremely tight. Without ballet, I would never have been able to wear that dress.

"Girls, Edward, Jasper and Emmett are here," Charlie knocked on my door. Oh, Charlie. He would never let me leave the house in what I was wearing now.

"Alice, I hope you know that Charlie is never going to let me leave the house in this ho dress."

"That's why I have this," Alice shoved a long, black pea coat in my direction that would cover up most of my dress. "He'll never notice."

"This place is great," Emmett hollered as soon as we walked into the club. It was terribly crowded and the music was so loud I could barely hear myself thinking.

I still wasn't sure how we had managed to get in since Alice and I were under 18 (or pretending to be in Alice's case). It was all a big blur; one moment were outside and the next minute I was being rushed into the club by Edward, who was looking around at everyone suspiciously.

It was getting hot in the room from all of the body heat so I took of my coat for the first time that night. I was a little nervous because I was wearing so little clothing. I had never felt this naked in public before. It was more revealing than just wearing leotards and tights.

"Whoa, Bella," Emmett catcalled as well as a few of the other guys around the bar. "You're looking good tonight."

I blushed under the eyes of so many people. For a ballerina who had been on stage a great number, I was horribly shy in front of crowds, especially when I wasn't on stage. On stage when I was dancing, I was fine. Stage fright didn't bother me, but off stage was another story.

Edward was looking at me like he never had before. I tried to not to act like I knew he was, but it was just so hard not to as I felt his lasar vision scan the whole length of my body. I felt hyperaware of him as his cold hand rest on the small of my back as he led me to the table in the corner that Jasper had picked out for us. He shot death glares at almost everyone who looked our way.

"Come on, Bella, lets go dance," Alice grabbed my hand and led me out onto the crowded dance floor.

Sweaty people were everywhere, dancing and grinding up on each other. This wasn't my favorite type of dancing, but I figured I would give it a try. After a while, I lost myself in the music and Alice and I were really having a good time. It was refreshing to dance in such a free, relaxing way. As much as I loved ballet, it could be uptight after a while.

After I had gotten tired of dancing, Alice and I headed to the bar to get something to drink (for me, of course). I ordered a bottle of water; I wasn't a big drinker, I had only drank alchol once or twice at parties in Phoenix, and, besides, I had an audition the next day and I couldn't afford to have a hangover. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a man sitting a ways down from us at the bar, staring at me. I turned to look at him and when I saw him he didn't look away. He just smirked and continued to stare at me. I knew that I had seen him before, but I just wasn't sure where. He was handsome, that was for sure. Not as good looking as any of the Cullens, but he did look very nice. His skin was very pale, almost vampire pale, and he had long, dark blonde hair that he had pulled back at the nape of his neck. From far away, I couldn't tell what color his eyes were.

I didn't say anything to Alice about it. So as she dragged me over to our table, I was surprised to see the man also get up from the bar and head in our direction. I couldn't be sure if he was following us, but I was sure that he was still staring at me.

"Alice, I have to go to the bathroom," I lied. I was determined to find out who that man was and why he seemed so familiar to me.

"Okay, do you want me to come with you?" I could only hope she wouldn't be looking for visions of me tonight.

I shook my head. "Just go on and go back to the table. I won't be long."

So Alice left me and I headed in the direction of the bathroom, with the strange man following me there. Now that Alice and I had seperated, I was sure that he was following me so when I got into the small, bright alcove that the bathroom was located in, I turned around and confronted him. I wasn't sure where my sudden spout of bravery had come from seeing as this man could be a rapist or a murderer.

"Who are you?" I asked. The more I looked at him the more I thought I had seen him before. He was still hiden under the dark lights of the club's main room.

"I'm James," He smiled, but it wasn't a nice smile. His smile gave chills to my very core.

"Have we met before?" I was stepping away from, but there was no where to go but in the bathroom.

"I don't believe so," The more I backed away from him, the more he moved into the light.

"Are you sure—" He was completely in the light now, and I looked at him and was horrified to see his set of blood red eyes. I knew where I had seen him now. He was one of the vampires from my dreams, the ones that the Cullens went after. I just hadn't recognized him without his two companions. "I know what you are."

He wasn't surprised. He had seen me with Alice, after all. I was going over my options in my head as he moved closer and closer towards me. I was getting extremely close to the wall. I couldn't go much further.

"I'll scream," I said as he back me up into the wall. I couldn't think about what he was about to do to me.

"No you won't," He wrapped his cold hand around my throat so hard.

He leaned his head down towards my neck as I vainly struggled to release myself of his grasp. I was gasping for breath as his head moved lower and lower. This was the end, I couldn't believe what was happening. I squeezed my eyes shut, hoping that would save me.

"Get off of her," I head a low voice growl. I opened my eyes and there stood my glorious savior, Edward, looking as deadly as he was beautiful.

James was surprised that he had been snuck up on and turned around to acknowledge him, but he didn't let me go. He kept his hand firmly wrapped around my throat.

"I said _let her go_," I had never seen Edward like this before, and if I hadn't been in this position, I probably would have been afraid of him. He stood towering over James with a menacing glare on his beautiful face.

James slowly let his hand trail away from my throat, but he didn't back away from me. He and Edward were having some type of vampire stare down, and I was extremely frightened. I had no idea what to do.

"Is something going on here?" Emmett came up behind Edward. Jasper and Alice followed him.

"No, nothing," James relented and moved away from me and out of the small alcove and into the main room of the club. He was outnumbered and could do nothing to me with the four of them around.

"Edward," I ran over into his arms. I had never hugged him before and I never wanted to let go. I felt so safe with him, and I knew that he would never let James hurt me.

"Bella, what happened?" Alice asked me while Edward still held me in his strong embrace. I could tell that he didn't want to let go as much as I did.

"I went to the bathroom and I saw him," I explained after I moved out of Edward's arms. I could still feel him near me. He was close enough to touch. "I recognized him, Alice. I knew I had seen him before, but I just couldn't place it. It wasn't until he moved into the light and I saw his eyes I that realized who he was. He was one of the vampires from my dreams."

"We need to get out of here," Edward said quietly.

No one spoke as we made our way out of the club, but the four of them formed some type of shield around me, guarding me from everything and everyone. Nothing was said until we got into Emmett's Jeep.

"What are we going to do, Edward?" Jasper said. I wasn't sure what he was talking about. Weren't we going home?

"I could run her north, try to shake him off," Edward suggested, but he shook his head as if to get rid of that idea. He didn't seem to like it very much. "Alice, do you see anything?"

Alice shook her head no.

"What is going on?" I was so confused. I had absolutely know idea what they were talking about.

"Bella, you can't go home," Alice turned to me. "That James—the vampire you saw in your dreams—he's a tracker, and he wants you."

"What do you mean 'he's a tracker'?"

"His talet, the thing he brought over into his new life is tracking. He plays games like this with all of his…hunts, and I'm afraid the way I reacted to him back there in the club set him off," Edward spat out, disgusted with that sick man. "We've just made this his most interesting game yet."

"What are we going to do?" I was horrified. What could we do? How was I ever going to get away from him?

"I'm going to take you away from here, Bella," Edward looked at me. "I won't let him hurt you."

"What about my life? My audition? Charlie?" I spewed out. As much as I was terrified of James and what he could do to me, I was worried about my life. I couldn't just up and leave.

"Bella, this is your life we're talking about," Jasper looked at me incredulously.

"I can't just up and leave? What would my father think?" I raised my voice. This was all coming on me so fast.

"She's right," Alice was the voice of reason. "She can't just leave her father like that. He's a police officer; he would have a whole unit out searching for her."

The silence was so thick in the car, you could have cut it with a knife. I could only assume everyone was thinking over our options.

Edward spoke up first. "Bella, we're going to take you back to your house. You pack up some clothes and tell your father whatever you need to let you go back to Phoenix. Tell him you aren't happy here."

"So we're going to Phoenix?" I asked. Edward just nodded.

"I can't believe I just did that," I cried onto Alice's shoulder. We were in my car on the way to the Cullen house now. Edward drove because I was crying to hard to see straight.

"Charlie will forgive you," Alice stroked my hair softly.

I had just hurt Charlie more than I ever wanted to. Edward had told me to do whatever I could to get Charlie to let me go. So as Edward and Alice got in my car and Emmett and Jasper went home to warn the others, I did the only thing I think of to do. I told Charlie that I had to get out of Forks before I go stuck there forever which was exactly what my mother had told him when she left him sixteen years ago. You could say I was hitting below the belt. I cried all the way back to the Cullen's.

Carlisle was there waiting for us when we go to the Cullen's house. "Who is going to go with her?"

"I will," Edward stepped up and placed his cold hand on my shoulder.

"Rosalie and I will, too," Alice volunteered the two of them. Rosalie didn't look too happy about that, though.

"Don't worry, Bella," Carlisle, in his warm, fatherly way, told me. "We won't let him near you."

The whole house was deathly quiet as everyone around me ran loaded cars and were doing who knows what. I was lost in the chaos. I sat on the couch, trying not to get in the way of what everyone was doing. It gave me a moment to think about things. What hit me the hardest, besides hurting Charlie, was that I couldn't audition tomorrow. I almost started crying again when I realized that I really wouldn't be there tomorrow to audition for Swan Lake.

Alice came up beside me looking like her dog just got ran over. "Bella, I'm so sorry."

"About what?"

"I've I had seen this, maybe you wouldn't have to do this,"Alice looked so sad, it hurt me.

"No, Alice, this isn't your fault," I hugged her. "You can't help it if you don't see this."

Edward came up and interrupted us. "Are you ready?"

I nodded and Alice followed me with the small bag I had packed full of my clothes and tolietries from my house. Edward led us out to his car that was waiting in the garage. The rest of the family stood near by, ready to go as well.

"Emmett is going to lead the tracker of your tail by taking Bella's car out to the woods while Jasper and I look for his two companions. Esme is going to make sure that he doesn't get anywhere near Bella's parents," Carlisle briefed Edward as Rosalie and Alice load our things into the car.

Esme pulled me close to her and kissed me softly on the cheek. "Be safe, Bella. I'll take care of your father."

"Thanks, Esme," I was tearing up again. Rosalie pulled me away from Esme and ushered me into the back seat of Edward's car. She surprised me by getting into the driver's seat and Alice got in on the passenger side. That left me with Edward in the back.

As we pulled out of the long winding driveway at the Cullen's house, I looked out the back window and I had a horrible feeling that I would never see the house again. A chill went through my whole body and Edward wrapped his long arms around me. I leaned into him and suppresed the horrific feeling I was having.


	10. Horrifying Dreams

Here is chapter 10! Thanks to the people who reviewed, but it would be so much better if even more people reviewed. I really enjoy it when people tell me they like my story; you don't have to go into an in-depth analysis of every little thing you like or didn't like, but I would like to know what you, the reader, thinks. It makes the experience all the more meaningful.

Vi

I don't own anything, by the way.

* * *

When I woke up in the morning in the backseat of Edward's car, we were almost in Phoenix. Alice, Edward, and Rosalie had changed clothes sometime during the night while I was sleeping. The three of them were all wearing variations on dark clothing that covered most of their bodies, and I wasn't sure where they had gotten the clothes seeing as I was the only one who had brought clothes with them. The three of them had just brought a bag full of books and some type of technological thing I didn't know anything about. Rosalie and Edward kept their appparel simple. They both wore jeans and long sleeve shirts. On the other hand, Alice had gone all out. She wore a long sleeve gray dress with black stiletto boots. She was even wearing a huge, floppy hat and long gloves to top it off.

"Good morning, Bella," Alice chimed. Her happiness at this time in the morning, but I had to remember that she never slept.

"Morning, Alice," I yawned and rubbed my eyes. I felt Edward, my pillow throughout the whole ride, shift beside me.

"Did you have any dreams last night?" She looked at me from the passenger seat.

"I actually did," I explained. "I was with my friend Liz in my old ballet studio. It wasn't really strange; I just remember being scared and Liz being there, but I didn't know why she was there. We were just talking. It really didn't make much sense."

"Why were you at your old ballet studio?"Edward asked. I noticed how beautifully the black of his clothes contrasted with the perfect white skin. It was hard to concentrate on what he was saying when he looked so beautiful.

"I don't know," I shrugged. "Well, I did know in my dream, but I never right out and said it. You see, in my dreams, I'm more like a spectator; I see myself talking, but I can't actually do anything except listen. It's like an out of body experience."

Edward just nodded as we pulled off of the interstate and towards downtown Phoenix.

"After we check into our hotel, we can go get you some new clothes, Bella," Alice told me.

"What about the sun?"I questioned. The sun did make vampires sparkle and I'm sure that the people of Phoenix surely would not ignore three, beautiful sparkling people walking down the streets.

"Miraculously, the weather is supposed to be cloudy, for this week at least," Edward replied. The weather in Phoenix was usually warm and sunny, never cloudy, but it did rain a couple of times a year. Maybe it would rain while we were down here so Edward, Alice, and Rosalie wouldn't be stuck inside the entire time.

I sighed as we pulled up to a small, upscale hotel that was hidden among the buildings downtown. I had never seen it before, but I had never really looked for it. Rosalie swiftly maneuvered the silver Volvo up beside the entrance where a valet was waiting for us. We took the few bags we had out of the car and went to check in.

We ended up getting a suite with two rooms. I was the only one who could sleep, obviously, but we got two rooms just so people wouldn't speculate. Who knew how long we would be staying there. I really didn't savour the idea of living out of a hotel room, but I could live with it.

"Bella, are you ready to go shopping?" Alice asked me after she had unpacked everything I had thrown in my small duffel bag. I was currently relaxing on my bed while she insisted that she unpack for me.

"Shopping? Alice, I already have plenty of clothes," I told her. I had brought all the summery type clothes that I had in my closet. That should be enough, for now at least.

"Come on," She whined. "I'm so bored, Bella, and I think I'm developing cabin fever. I need to get out and walk around somewhere."

"Can't you just walk around the hotel?" I huffed. I was still tired even though I had slept most of the car ride to Phoenix.

"Please, please, please," Alice grabbed my hand and put that adorable puppy dog look on her face.

It was hard to say no to a face like that. "Fine, but only for a little while."

Alice looked as if Christmas had come early. She eagerly grabbed my arm and pulled me out of the room and into the living area to tell Rosalie and Edward we were going. I didn't know why she made a show out of telling them; we both knew that they had already heard our whole conversation with their super vampire hearing.

"Be careful," Edward rested his cold hand on the side of my face. Even though his hand was freezing temperature wise, it made my skin feel like it was burning.

Alice and I got in Edward's car and I gave her directions to the nearest mall which was about five minutes away. She gibbered on happily as I stared out the window looking at the city I had left behind over half a year ago.

After my mother's fatal car accident, I had stayed in Phoenix for a couple of months. I had loved this city so much and even though I knew I had my father's place to go to in Forks, I didn't want to leave Phil, my step dad, and all my friends. I especially didn't want to leave ballet, but it was just so hard with my mother's memory being around me all the time. I just couldn't function normally anymore so I did the only thing I could do: I left Phoenix and everything I knew behind.

Looking back on it, it probably wasn't a smart idea. I had completely cut the people I loved and cared about the most out of my life. I had given up the thing that mattered most to me, which was ballet. However stupid my choices seemed to me now, I didn't regret them. They had led me to Edward and to the Cullens.

"Finally," Alice said as she got out of the car and breathed the fresh air in the mall parking lot. Like many people had told me before, Alice was a compulsive shopaholic. Letting Alice loose in a mall was like letting an alcoholic loose in a liquor store.

Three and a half hours later, we were done. We had been to over a dozen stores, and I had tried on so many outfits that I actually lost count. I ended up walking out of the mall with a whole new wardrobe. It was almost embarrassing how many bags Alice and I were carrying. Of course she was carrying the heavier ones, but we were both carrying at least ten bags each. She had also bought clothes for Edward, Rosalie, and herself. Most of the things she had bought them were things that would cover up most of their skin in case the sun was to make an appearance while we were in Phoenix.

"I am never going shopping with you again," I collapsed on the couch once we got back to the hotel room. "I don't think I've ever been this tired."

Edward was attentive as ever and I could tell that he was mad at Alice for keeping me out so long and wearing me out while I was already exhausted from our long trip. Normally, I would tell him not to be mad at her, but now I was just too tired to even say anything. The last thing I remembered was Edward's face as I feel into a deep sleep on the couch.

* * *

"_Bella!"A woman's voice called out to me in terror. I knew that voice, but I couldn't place it. "Bella!"_

_I looked around the room for any signs of life. There were none, but I could tell from the pools of blood on the floor that someone had been here earlier and that person had been horribly hurt._

_Mirrors lined the walls from floor to ceiling in the huge room. A barre also went around the room. It was my old ballet studio. I hadn't been there in ages, specifically the week after my mother had died when I dropped out of my classes, but the room was still as familiar to me as it always had been. I could have found my way in that place with my eyes closed._

"_Bella!" The voice called out again. I could hear the anguish and the pain that was clear in the person's horrible. It pulled at my heart and I knew that this girl was the one who had been hurt. It was her blood that was all over the floor._

_I looked around again for any signs of where the girl could be. There was a trail of blood leading closer and closer to the costume closet on the far end of the studio. It was where we always kept our tutus and the props for performances. Clearly, the wounded girl was in there. I could only think of what I would find when I opened the door._

"_Bella," The voice called out to me again for the fourth time. It was softer this time and fading away. Whoever she was, she had lost strength. The same pain and anguish were there in her voice, but they were muted behind the exhaustion that was taking hold of her. She had lost so much blood—it was everywhere around the studio, including the mirrors and windows._

_I made my way slowly, but surely towards the closet, preparing myself for the bloody sight I was sure to find when I opened the door. The wood doors were heavy and hard to open, but I managed to budge them open with all the might I had in my body. There, on the floor lying in a puddle of her own blood, was my best friend Liz._

_It was a horrific sight to see, and it was unlike anything I had ever seen before. She had been beaten almost beyond the point of recognition, but I would have recognized her anywhere thanks to her trademark long, golden blonde hair which was now coated in dried blood. Her leg was at an awkward, sickening angle, and I could hear her wheezing for breathe on the floor. I tried to look away, but I couldn't seem to tear my eyes away._

_She struggled to raised her bloody hand and pointed at something behind me before managing to wheeze out one word. "Run."_

_I felt the hair on the back of my neck raise on end and I slowly turned around and looked into the eyes of a monster._

* * *

"Bella, Bella, Bella," I could hear Edward's voice, but I could also hear a familiar voice screaming loudly. I could also hear Rosalie and Alice shuffling around in the room. "Stop screaming, Bella. Stop."

I was the one screaming. The familiar voice was mine. I was laying in my bed in the hotel room; I wasn't sure how I had gotten there since I had fallen asleep on the couch earlier. Edward had probably carried me.

"What happened?" Edward asked after I had a second to think. I had stopped screaming, but I still wasn't over my horrible dream. It was so real. It was like I was actually there.

"You had another dream didn't you?" Alice questioned me. She looked worried for me as did Rosalie and Edward.

I nodded. I was still in some sort of trance from the dream. It felt like any minute that horrible…_thing _was going to jump out at me again. I could still see the blood on the floor when I closed my eyes, and my skin was still covered in goose bumps.

"What happened in the dream?" Edward pried. He knew how important it was to learn what had happened. If Jasper and Alice were right about me being clairvoyant, then this dream could serve as a tool to help us in the future.

"Can we not talk about this now?" I looked at him pleadingly before checking the clock and seeing that it was three a.m.

"Bella, you just woke up in the middle of the night screaming bloody murder," Rosalie pointed out to me. "I think we need to know what happened."

"No, Rosalie, Bella's right," Edward sighed. "We should just wait for morning. She needs her rest."

Alice nodded and left the room, but Rosalie didn't seem too happy about this arrangement. She shot me a glare before storming out of the room. Edward reluctantly turned to leave the room as well.

I was still terrified. The dream was fresh on my mind and I felt as if any second it would become reality.

"Edward, don't leave," I didn't think I could take being alone.

He turned around as quickly as I said it. He smiled gently and came and sat down on the side of the bed by me.

"What's the matter, Bella?"

"I'm scared," I said quietly. I was almost ashamed of how childish I was acting. I didn't remember ever being that scared since I had watched a scary movie when I was nine and made my mom come sit with me in my room until I feel asleep to keep all the monsters away.

Edward groaned and let his hand stray up and stroke my hair softly. "I don't want you to have to be scared like this. You shouldn't have to worry about visions or vampires or anything else like that."

His voice sounded tight and painful, and it hurt me to listen to him speak like that. He was right, though. I was seventeen years old, and here I was worrying about whether or not I was going to be alive tomorrow or the next day because some demented vampire was out to get me. How many seventeen year olds actually have to worry about stuff like that?

I didn't say anything. I just took his other hand in both of mine. He just stared down at our hands thinking something unknown.

"We never should have gotten involved in your life, Bella. I'm so sorry we have put you through all of this," He removed his hand from mine. I had never seen Edward like this before. He had always been smiling and laughing and romantic when I had been around him. Now, he was brooding and full of unreleased angst.

"Don't say that," My eyes were getting slightly watery. It hurt to hear Edward say that. "Stay here with me. It will make me feel better."

He didn't say anything else, but just lay down in the bed beside me. I moved closer to him, but I didn't touch him. Edward had always been careful with our physical contact and I was afraid if I had moved too close to him, he would have left.

I didn't go to sleep for a long time. I just lay there in the silence with Edward, thinking about what he had told me earlier about how the Cullens should have never gotten involved in my life. He knew I was awake, I could tell, but neither of us said anything. I wasn't sure what time I finally drifted back off to sleep.

The next morning, I filled the Alice, Rosalie, and Edward in on my dream. Rosalie was still a little angry that we hadn't discussed it the night before and Edward was being unusually frigid towards me. Only Alice was acting like her normally self.

"That's horrible, Bella," She comforted me after I had finished telling the dream. "I'm so sorry you had to experience that."

"Do you have any idea why you would go back to your old ballet studio?" Edward asked. He had been acting strange since I had woken up. I was pretty sure he was trying to avoid me after last night, but not trying to seem like he was avoiding me. I knew him too well to fall for that.

"I don't know," I answered honestly. I really couldn't think of a reason to go back. I didn't have any ties there anymore except for Liz. "In the other dream I had, Liz and I were just fine. No one else had been there but us."

Edward seemed to think about this for a minute. He looked to Alice and Rosalie to, I guess, gather what they thought about the subject.

"Where does Liz live?" He asked. I wasn't quite sure where he was going with this.

"She lives a couple of blocks away from the studio," I told him. "Why do you want to know?"

"Alice is going to go check things out around there to make sure that nothing suspicious is going on," He replied. "We don't want anyone to get hurt."

Alice nodded at Edward and I could only guess what she was telling him in her mind as she left the hotel room before I could even say 'go.' This left me alone with Rosalie and Edward, the two people who didn't seem to want to be around me lately.

Although Rosalie had come on this trip with us and she had spoken to me more than she had in the past few weeks, she was still the ice queen, sending glares my way almost every second and no doubt thinking horrible things about me. Alice and Emmett had both told me she would come back around to me eventually, but I was beginning to seriously doubt it. Edward, on the other hand, had been the first to volunteer to take me to Phoenix, but right now his mood swings were starting to give me whiplash. One minute he would be following me all over the small hotel room and the next he would seem to want to be as far away from me as possible. Between the two of them and this sadistic vampire that was after me, I had my hands completely full.

I had barely thought at all about the audition I had missed yesterday, but now that I had time to sit around with no Alice around to keep me company, I was growing increasingly depressed. I had bailed on my Swan Lake audition without even calling to say that I wouldn't be able to go after Madame Holman had gone through the complicated process of getting me an audition. I was practically ruined at the PNBC now. I would never be able to get a good role.

As I sat moping around the hotel room about my lost audition and ballet career, my phone started vibrating frantically. I looked at the caller ID and saw that it was Liz calling. I was eager to make sure she was all right. So I told I Rosalie I was going outside in the lobby for a minute to talk on the phone. Edward had slipped outside on the balcony for a moment and I really didn't feel like telling him anything.

"Liz, are you okay?" I asked immediately as I picked up the phone.

"Hello, Bella," The voice on the other line did not belong to my friend Liz. I had only heard that voice speak a few words, but I was able to identify it quickly. It was James, the vampire from my dreams and the club.

"James," I replied, putting on a façade of bravado. Inside, I was absolutely terrified. My hand was shaking as I held the phone up to my ear. "Where is Liz?"

"Oh, you're little friend?" He said after a moment of thinking, like he had forgotten about her or something. "She's fine. For now, that is."

"What do you mean 'for now'?" I asked.

"I mean exactly what it sounds like," I could practically hear him smirking on the other end of the phone. "Now, if you will just follow my directions everything will go smoothly."

I swallowed hard. "Fine."

"I would like to finish what we started the last time we meet, Bella," He said as calmly and plainly as the day. It was as if he was talking about going and walking down the street or doing some other daily activity, but this was my life he was talking about.

"Okay," I breathed.

James laughed cruelly at me. "Make sure you don't bring anyone with you, Bella. We wouldn't want sweet Liz here to get hurt, now would we?"

"Where do you want to meet me?" I was taking this as well as I possibly could, but I knew I had to do something. He had Liz and I couldn't let him hurt her.

"How about at your old ballet studio? The one downtown on Fourth Street? At 1:30?" He suggested casually. He had apparently been doing research on me.

"I'll be there," I said meekly, my bravado had already faded away exposing what I was truly feeling.

"Good bye, Bella," His voice rang through the phone.

I hung up the phone quickly and looked at the clock. It was 12:45 right now. I had just enough time to get to the ballet studio with a little bit of time to spare. Maybe that would give me some time to come up with a plan to get myself and Liz out of this mess unharmed, but I had a horrible feeling that wouldn't happen.

I went up to the lobby and asked for a piece of paper on which I wrote down a small note for Edward explaining myself and what I had done. I also told him that I loved him. I figured that I would probably be dead by the time he read, so why not tell him how I felt? I thanked Alice for being so kind to me and I forgave Rosalie for being such a bitch to me the past few months. I left the note with a man at the front desk and instructed him to give it to Edward the next he came down into the lobby, which wouldn't more than likely wouldn't be for a while. I also asked the man at the front desk to call a cab for me and charge it to my room.

As the cab pulled away from the hotel, I had another horrible feeling that I would never see Edward again.

* * *

Well, that was chapter 10. I'm thinking there is only going to be two more chapters, but it might be three at the most. I'm pretty sure that I'm not going to do a sequal either, unless anyone really wants me to. I have some idea floating around in my head, but I'm haven't made up my mind yet. If you have any good ideas for a possible sequal, you can either message me or just tell me in a review!


	11. For Good

Here is chapter eleven! There will only be two more chapters and one of them will be an epilogue. Please review and tell me what you liked, thought could have been better, etc. It's nice to have some input from the readers.

Vi908

I don't own anything except for Liz.

* * *

The taxi pulled up to the ballet studio around 1:15, which meant I had approximately fifteen minutes before I had to go in and face James. My poor heart was pounding so loudly and hardly in my chest that I could hear it clearly in my ears; I felt like I was about to have a massive heart attack. I had never been so close to death before. As much as I told myself to calm down, I couldn't.

I got out of the cab and thanked the driver for taking me there before I turned around to stare at the building I had been brought to. I hadn't been there in months, but I still knew it so well. It was an older building in the middle of downtown with slightly chipped bricks and I make out a spot where someone had spray painted their name in big gold and silver letters on one of the far walls. Overall, on the outside it looked slightly run down and old, like no one had ever used it for much of anything, but it was home to one of the best ballet schools in Arizona and I had once been a proud member of it.

I could remember the first time my mother had brought me here when I was five years old. She was signing me up to take dance classes because she had just realized how terribly clumsy and uncoordinated I was becoming, and she also wanted me to become involved in more activities outside of school. As she registered me at the front desk, I looked into the studio and saw the beautiful ballerinas twirling and whirling all around the huge room and I knew in that very minute that was what I wanted to do when I grew up. I wanted to be just like them, wearing those beautiful pink Pointe shoes and the costumes that made you feel like a princess. When I used to tell people about that moment, I would always call it 'the beginning of my life' since my life was all about dance and that was the first time I realized I wanted to dance.

It was horribly ironic that where I considered my life to begin was the exact place where it would end.

I walked into the empty studio (it was a Sunday and there were no lessons given on Sundays) and immediately a rush of cold air blew at me, chilling me to my very core. I had always welcomed that cool rush of air after a long day of school or on a hot summer's day. Never had it made me feel such a sense of dread. The dance studio had always been a happy place for me, almost like a second home. I loved dancing and, naturally, I loved the dance studio as well, but as I walked through the eerily silent lobby, I had never hated it more.

I had been hoping that my dream, no, nightmare, wouldn't be true, that it was just like any other regular dream that any normal teenager had, but the moment I walked into the main room, my hopes were dashed. There was blood everywhere, and I mean everywhere. All over the hard wood floor, the mirrors that adorned the front wall, and it was even on the pictures that hung on the back wall. I looked and saw a place where a picture of me had hung for a long time, but the space was empty now. Nothing hung there anymore, except for the blood that drenched the walls.

"Bella!" Liz's shrill voice called out to me. Thanks to my nightmare, I knew exactly where she was and what was to come after I went and saw her, but there was nothing I could do now. I couldn't change the path that had been laid out in my vision. It was meant to happen, just like I was meant to meet the Cullen family.

I couldn't regret the choices that had led me here to ballet studio because they had also led me to Edward and to Alice and the rest of the Cullens. Without them, I didn't know where I would be, more than likely still in Forks moping around and mourning the death of my mother. I definitely wouldn't be dancing, and I probably wouldn't have any friends either. I couldn't make myself wish that I had never met them, either. They had changed me, for good.

"Bella!" Her voice screeched in pain and snapped me out of my train of thought. As I made my way over to the small closet, I could see trails of her blood smeared all over the floors, like she had been dragged in there. "Bella!"

I knew what was to happen next. Liz was going to call out for me one more time before I would open the door to the closet and see her laying there, from there things would get even worse as I would turn around to see James.

As if on cue, Liz's weak voice called out for me one last time. Her strength was fading. "Bella."

The door was as hard to get open in person as it had been in my dream so I had to push with all of my strength to get the thing to budge open. Exactly like in my dream, Liz was lying there on the floor in her blood with her right leg bent strangely and her golden hair and face were covered in dried blood. It was hard to look at, but I couldn't manage to tear my eyes away from her, knowing that this might be the last time I saw her alive. We were both standing on the doorstep of death.

She struggled to raise her hand and point at the _thing _standing behind me before she whispered only one terrifying word. "Run."

I felt the hair on the back of my neck raise on end and I slowly turned around and looked into the eyes of a monster.

He was even more horrifying than I remembered. Even though it had only been days since I had encountered him in the club in Seattle, he looked even more menacing. His eyes, which had always been blood red whenever I saw him in my dreams or in real life, were completely black. I knew that this meant that he was thirsty. His mouth was twisted up into some sort of snarl. He was having a hard time controlling himself around all of Liz's blood, which was good seeing as once he started feeding and lost control to the blood lust, he would hurriedly finish the two of us off. He was too thirsty to leave us to suffer for long.

"You said you weren't going to hurt her," I was really in no place to be saying anything bad, but I couldn't go down without a fight. How cowardly would I be if I just let him take me then and there? I was going to die fighting.

"I changed my mind," He smiled evilly, revealing two rows of shiny, white teeth. "I was getting tired of waiting for you to come along so I thought I'd…warm up on sweet Liz here."

I was furious that he had hurt her and I could only imagine how much pain she was in at the moment. She had lost so much blood; she couldn't make it much longer without medical attention.

"Well, I'm here now," I was commending my mentally on how well I was taking my impending death. I had never thought much about the way I would die, but I guessed that at least I could say I died bravely trying to save someone I loved.

"Yes, you are," James licked his lips and moved towards me. I had already shut the closet doors back. If she was conscious, I didn't want Liz to see any of the things that were about to happen.

Suddenly, James had me in the same position he had me in while we were in the small alcove in the club. I was terrified and my heart felt as if it was about to literally jump out of my chest. James smirked as he heard it. Through all my bravery, he had been able to sense that I was still scared to death of what was going on.

"You know what, Bella?" He released my throat from his death grasp. I was now gasping for breath do the fact that he had cut off my oxygen supply for a good minute. "I think I'm going to have some fun with you."

He held up the picture of me that had once hung on the back wall of the room. It was one of me dancing the role Odette in Swan Lake two years ago; it reminded me of the fact that I would never be able to dance again, and that hurt more than anything else ever could.

"This is a very beautiful picture of you," The way he said it made me feel disgusted. "You look so…happy."

Before I could even react, He leaned towards me and brought his foot down on my lower calf extremely hard. I screamed in pain as I felt, and heard, my leg crack in two. I could even feel the bone sticking out of my skin and blood starting to trickle down my broken leg. He just continued to smile as I cried out from the pain. I didn't even have time to recover from his first blow before he had pushed me all the way across the room and straight into the mirrors. I heard the crack behind me and I raised my hand up to feel blood coming from my scalp. He continued to throw me back and forth across the room, and before long he had thrown me into the back wall where tons of pictures proceeded to fall on me, cutting and scratching me even more.

"It wasn't hard for me to get the information I needed to find you here in Phoenix," James explained everything, how he had Victoria, the female vampire I had seen in my dreams, break into Forks High School and steal my records and how he had kidnapped Liz on her way to the ballet studio yesterday afternoon after he had seen a picture of her in my room while he broke into my house looking for me.

I tried to crawl away from the wall of pictures, but it was hard. I was surrounded by glass from the picture frames and every single move I made caused more and more of it to pierce my skin. The pain was too much for me to take so I just sat there, surrounded by pictures of my friends and legendary ballerings, such as Margot Fonteyn and Gelsey Kirkland.

James paused before continuing his attack on me. The blood was starting to overwhelm him and I could tell it would only be minutes before he would lose control and have to finish me off. He stood on the opposite side of the room from me with his eyes closed, letting the smell of the blood come to him. After a minute, he turned back towards me and I was sure that it was the end when a figure flew out at him, knocking him away from me.

"Bella," A voice called out to me. It wasn't Liz this time, and for some reason when I hear that voice, I felt a rush of hope. "Carlisle, go check the other girl, she's lost even more blood than Bella has," the high, feminine voice sounded by my head on the floor. By now, my body was numb and all the sounds I heard were muffled. I felt like I was drowning. "Bella, it's me, Alice. We're here to help you, Bella. Please, don't close your eyes."

"Jasper, you might want to get out of here," Another voice said, only it was male. It was much deeper, but I couldn't tell who it was although it sounded familiar. I was having trouble concentrating on anything besides a coming darkness that was threatening to overcome me.

"I can handle it," Another male voice said. It wasn't as deep as the second voice, but I also recognized it.

"How is she, the other girl?" The feminine voice asked.

"I'm afraid it's too late to save her," A fatherly like voice responded from somewhere beside me on the floor. I could feel the cold hand touch my skin and it shocked me, it was so cold. "But we might be able to save Bella, if we work fast. Rosalie, quick, give me your jacket."

I could feel something soft propped under my head now, but I was still having trouble focusing. I had figured out that the Cullens were here, all of them I suspected, but I couldn't help but drift towards the darkness that was overtaking my mind. I wanted to speak, but my mouth just couldn't form the words.

"Her head is bleeding badly," Carlisle noted. I could feel Alice holding my only hand that wasn't hurt. The other I had broken sliding across the floor when James through me.

"I think it might be time, Carlisle."

"Edward won't allow," Emmett's deep voice sounded from somewhere near me.

"It's either that or let her die," Jasper responded bluntly. His voice sound strained. He paused a moment before saying something else softly. "I'll go take care of the other girl."

"If Edward won't do it, then I will," Alice shouted. I could hear noises in the background that kind of sounded like floor being ripped up and I also thought I smelled smoke at one point in time. It must have been the blood loss making me imagine things.

"Alice, are you sure you're strong enough?" Emmett asked her.

"For Bella, I am," That made me love Alice even more than I already did.

"No, Alice," Edward cut in harshly. I wasn't sure where he had come from. I hadn't remembered hearing his voice earlier, and I definitely would have recognized his voice if he had been speaking to me. His voice took on a much gentler tone when he turned to me and grabbed my hand away from Alice. "Bella, hang on, we'll get you to a doctor and you'll be all right."

"Edward, I'm sorry, but you're sister is right," Carlisle had stopped trying to tend to my many wounds. I heard Edward growl in protest. "She's lost too much blood already. By the time we could get her to a hospital, she would be dead. We have two options here."

Here it was, the moment I had been waiting to learn about since Alice had first told me I would become one of them.

"No, I won't do that to her!" Edward shouted. "I won't condemn her to this type of existence. I can't do that to her. She deserves better than this."

Edward didn't want me to be like them? I couldn't understand why he wouldn't. I would get to spend forever with him if he turned me into a vampire now. Didn't he want that as much as much as I did? I loved the Cullens and the thought of being separated from them, especially Edward, made me hurt even more than I already did. Anyways, didn't he realize that if I wasn't turned into a vampire now that I would die and never be able to see any of them again?

"Well, if you won't do it, Edward, I will," Rosalie's voice cut in smoothly and calmly through all the chaos that was surrounding us. She was the last person I expected to come into this conversation. She had practically hated me all these months. "Edward, we love Bella like you do. She is the one who finally completes our family, and I, personally, do not want to hear you complaining about how she died for all eternity. So either you do it, or I will."

I was losing consciousness more and more as Edward and Rosalie continued to argue over whether I should die as humans do or become a vampire like them. It seemed that I didn't really have a say in the matter since I couldn't even keep my eyes open anymore. I had decided a long time ago that I wanted to be a vampire. I couldn't bear to lose the family I had come to love so dearly.

"We don't have much longer," I heard Carlisle's urgent voice. "Make your decision."

That was the last thing I heard as I drifted off into a land of darkness and burning, hot fire. I wasn't sure if I had been left to die or if Edward had relented and decided to make me one of them. Only one word could describe what I was experiencing: hell.

* * *

"Jasper, she's waking up!" I heard a bubbly voice squeal. I knew that voice anywhere: Alice.

I moved to get up, but I still found myself struggling to get up. Slowly, I moved my fingers and my eyelids fluttered open and my eyes immediately adjusted to the bright light in the room.

"Bella!" Alice sprung on me with all the force she had in her tiny little body, which was a lot seeing as she was a vampire. I was surprised that she hadn't killed me with all the force she used.

Jasper smiled at me from my bedside. Speaking of bedside, I was just now realizing where I was. I was in Alice's room at the Cullen house.

"What happened?" I pushed Alice off of me and flung my legs to the floor and pushed myself up out of bed.

"You don't remember?" Jasper asked, puzzled.

Then, it all hit me. The hotel, James, the ballet studio, Liz, and the blood, oh God, there was so much blood. "The last thing I remember was Carlisle saying that there wasn't much time left."

"Wow, I'm surprised you remembered that much. You seemed like you had been out of it longer than that," Alice told me as she, Jasper, and I congregated in her room.

"So I'm a…" I stated quietly. It was weird to say it. I didn't feel much different than I had days ago.

"You're a vampire now," She smiled happily and gave me the biggest bear hug imaginable from a girl Alice's size.

"What exactly happened?"

"I think we should wait to explain until we are all downstairs and the whole family is here," Jasper advised us.

_Family, _that made me think of Charlie. What had he heard about me? Had he just heard that his daughter had gone missing and not realized that she would never be found because she was actually a vampire now?

"Edward and Carlisle should be home in about five minutes," Alice told us as we walked down the stairs.

"Bella!" For the second time, I was grabbed into a big bear hug, but this time it was Emmett who was squeezing me like he hadn't seen me in ten years.

"Hey, Emmett," I hugged him back just as strongly. I had no doubt that I would be taking advantage of the extra strength newborn vampires had and would be using it against him.

"Oh, Bella," Esme also came and hugged me, but not as strongly as Alice or Emmett did. "It's so good to see you up again."

Rosalie sat on the couch reading Italian _Vogue _and although she didn't get up and hug me like Esme, Emmett, and Alice had, she did look up from her magazine and gave me a warm smile, like she used to when we were friends.

Carlisle and Edward walked in exactly when Alice said they would, and they both looked surprised to see me up, Edward especially.

"Bella, I'm sure you have some questions," Carlisle said as we all sat down around the living room. I sat on the couch beside Jasper. I was sure that he was keeping my emotions tightly guarded.

"What happened exactly? I was in and out of it so I didn't really catch everything that was going on."

"Well, after you went off to the ballet studio, Rosalie got worried about you because you had been downstairs an awfully long time so she and Edward went to the lobby looking for you when the receptionist gave Edward your note," My eyes flashed up to Edward's face when Carlisle mentioned the note. I had almost forgotten about that. "Alice was looking through your friend's neighborhood when she saw what was happening. She was the first one to get to you.

"Emmett, Jasper, and I had been tracking James, but we lost him up in the Rockies. The moment we realized he was coming here, we got here as fast as we could and we met up with Edward and Rosalie, looking for you. When Edward remembered your dream about the ballet studio, we were all convinced that was where you were so we went there and there you were.

"It was horrible what he had done to you, Bella," Carlisle grimaced just thinking about and I saw Edward wince. He, too, had seen the horrifying images Carlisle had pictured. "While Edward took care of James, the rest of us went to taking care of you. We want you to know, Bella, that we would never have forced this life on you if you had any chance of living. You had lost too much blood by the time we got to you."

"What about Liz?"Selfishly, I had been caught up in my own whirlwind and had just remembered my best friend that was also there with me that afternoon. The last time I had seen her, she had been barely hanging on. I could only hope for the best.

"It was too late to save her," Carlisle informed me sadly. "We had to turn her as well."

"What do you mean? Liz is a vampire? Where is she?" All my questions spewed out of me. How did, in one day, Liz and I both become vampires? It was a crazy world we were living in.

"Liz, your friend, has become a vampire as well, but I'm afraid having more than one newborn vampire in one household is a hard job," Carlisle informed me. "You remember Edward telling you about our friends in Denali? Tanya, Kate and Irina?" I nodded. "Liz will be living with them for a while, at least until she learns to control her thirst. After then, she will be free to do whatever she pleases, including visiting you."

I smiled. Somehow, both of us managed to make it out alive. I wasn't sure how we had pulled off that one. "What about Charlie?"

"I'm sorry, Bella, but you won't be able to see Charlie ever again," Carlisle answered gravely. I knew that was coming, but it still hurt. I felt horrible for the last things I had said to him. "We made it appear like you had a car accident and ran off of the bridge going towards the south. It was the easiest way to end things."

I nodded. I had accepted that becoming a vampire meant giving up my past life, even if that meant giving up Charlie. I could picture how hard it would be for him losing the love of his life (my mother that he had never gotten over) and his only child within a year of each other.

"Do you have any other questions?" Carlisle asked me patiently. I knew that it must have been rather dull relaying the events to me and telling me the rules of his family as he had done many times with the others he had brought in to join him.

"Uh, yeah, we aren't going to stay in Forks, are we?" It would be hard for me to stay in Forks close to all these people I knew and not get caught. I would never stay in the house all the time, but I couldn't afford to leave and get caught.

"No, we own a house up in Rochester, New York. That's actually where we found Rosalie. We'll be going there for a little while," He explained. "I'm sure you will love it."

I sat there in the living room of the house I knew so well and I couldn't tell if I was sad or happy about what had transpired over the past couple of days. Yes, I was happy that Alice's visions had come true and I was now a part of their lives permanently. I was also happy to have Liz be able to share that life with me, but it was a somewhat sad as well. When I became a vampire, I had to leave a part of me behind that I never wanted to lose: my family. It would be hard not to keep in touch with Phil or not to want to go to my dad's house and listen to him watch sports in his living room with Billy and Jacob Black, but, in the end, I had been able to gain so much more.

* * *

Only two more chapters left, guys. Hope you enjoyed it, please review!


	12. Part of the Family

Here is the last real chapter of Save the Last Dance, and I must say that I'm reallysad to see it end. I've grown really attached to this story, and I really love it. I had written a short epilogue, but I didn't really like it so I cut it from the story. It was extremely different and I feel like it ends better here. However, I have some good news...**_I will be doing a sequel_**. But the sequel won't be about Bella, it's going to have a lot to do with an OC character and the wolf pack with some Victoria and Laurent thrown in there. This story is going to be more of a companion story for Save the Last Dance, and it will probably be out in a couple of weeks. For right now, I feel like Bella's story is over, but I'm not saying that one day I won't write another story continuing where this ends.

I really want to thank each and everyone of you for reviewing and reading my story. It really means a lot.

Vi

I don't own anything!

* * *

I had only been a vampire for three weeks now, but the time had passed so quickly it seemed like only one hour. Since I could not anymore, the days and nights seemed to blend together and it never mattered what time it really was since I now had unlimited amounts of time. I had this kind of infinite patience that no human possessed now, and it was comforting to know that I would really never be bored again.

Although I did love being a vampire, I was having a hard time adjusting to my new 'life'. I had always known that vampires were super strong and that it was very easy for them to break things, but I never knew that they had to be so careful with things. My first day after I had awoken from my transformation, I had broken the remote control for the TV and a wooden chair just by accidentally touching them too hard all within a thirty minute period. It had felt like I was just reaching out to them normally, like I did when I was a human, but I had practically smashed them into a million little pieces. Alice and Emmett were both trying desperately to teach me how to be extremely gentle with things, but it was a very hard lesson to learn. I felt horrible for crushing Esme's priceless things, but she assured me that Emmett had ruined a lot more things than I had and it made me feel a little bit better.

I also had a hard time adjusting to my new vampire appearance. Vampires were beautiful to the point of flawlessness to help attract their prey, but I had never thought that I would change as well when I became a vampire. The first time looking in the mirror after my transformation was a complete and utter shock for me. I had been used to being the somewhat plain girl. I was never ugly, but I wasn't quite beautiful, like Rosalie or Alice, either. I was just a normal teenage girl with acne and split ends, but now it was a completely different story.

My hair had seemed to darken a little bit and it was now thicker and shinier, too. My facial features had always been soft and round, but they were more angular and sharp like the rest of the Cullens. Everything about my appearance had seemed to change to make my looks more appealing to humans; even my body had gone from being skinny and lanky to being like I worked out ten hours a day. I liked the way I looked now, but it felt strange. I didn't quit feel like myself.

The changes my body, my hair, and my face had under gone were ones I could live with, even if it felt like I was looking at a whole other person in the mirror. I just couldn't stand my eyes. Alice had prepared me for the shock I was going to feel when I looked at myself for the first time after my change, but she hadn't prepared me for what my eyes would look like. They were red, just like James' and the other two vampires I had seen in my dreams. I screamed the first time I saw them. They reminded me so much of James and the other vampires from my dreams. I didn't in any way want to be associated with them.

Carlisle quickly explained to me that all newborn vampires had red eyes their first year of existence. I still had my human blood in my body so until it went away I would have red eyes along with my stronger-than-usual newborn strength. He then gave me a box of brown colored contacts for when I went outside that made me feel better that I didn't have to live with red eyes for a whole year. I couldn't wait until my eyes turned that gorgeous topaz color that the rest of the Cullens had.

My first time hunting had been an unusual experience. Jasper and Rosalie, who was being a lot friendlier towards me since I had been changed, took me out into the woods outside the Cullen's house a few hours after I had woken up. I felt as if my throat was burning and I wondered if something was wrong with me. I told Jasper and he had laughed at me and told me that I was thirsty. When I went outside with Jasper and Rosalie, I had been afraid that I wouldn't know what to do, but it was natural. The moment I smelled the blood radiating from a pack of deer my body had responded, and before I knew it, I had drained at least three of them. I had been told that the call of animals' blood wasn't as strong as human blood, and I couldn't fathom what it would be like to be around humans now or ever. It must have been so hard for the Cullens to be around me all the time like they were when I was human.

I had given up a lot of things to become a vampire: my family, my life, and my friends. However, there was one thing I didn't have to give up and that was ballet. Fortunately, ballet had been the talent that I had brought over from my human life (besides having some small visions, but nothing like what Alice had). I had been somewhat disappointed when I hadn't ended up with some cool super power like Edward, Alice, or Jasper, but I was able to dance, and that mattered more than anything else. I had been worried that I would have to give up my passion, but thanks to my talent, it was able to continue.

"Are you sad to leave?" Alice asked. We had started packing for our cross country trip to our new home, Rochester, New York. We would leave in two days.

"I guess it is a little bittersweet," I sighed as I packed up the few clothes I had. We had decided that we would wait to buy me new clothes until we moved.

"Why do you say that?" She questioned. Alice had made sure that my first three weeks as a vampire had been as easy on me as possible, always checking to see if I was thirsty or if I was adjusting well enough. She had been a real help to me, and I couldn't thank her enough.

"It's just that I've known this place my entire life. Both of my parents grew up here. This is where I met you guys," I tried to put my feelings into words, but it was hard to explain what I was feeling. "Now, I'm leaving and I can never come back."

"We'll come back to Forks one day, Bella," Alice told me. "We've been here before we met you, back when Carlisle made the treaty with the Quileutes. Jasper and I weren't with them, but they were here before. I'm sure that we will be back one day."

"I know," I said as I packed more of my things into boxes. "It will just be a long time."

"Oh," Alice said after a minute. She had a strange look on her face. "Edward has to talk to you."

"He does?" Edward had barely talked to me the past three weeks. When I had confronted him about it, he said he had just been busy, not that he was avoiding me, but I knew otherwise. It was very hard to simply 'not see someone' in the Cullen house. The house was large, but when I couldn't leave (except for when I went hunting and I was under strict supervision then) it felt like it was closing in on me. Even though I loved the Cullens, I couldn't seem to get some time to myself. You couldn't seem to get away from anyone in this house, especially because everyone had super hearing and three people had powers that invaded privacy. Luckily, I only had Alice and Jasper to deal with. Edward still couldn't read my mind, a fact that made me very happy but frustrated him.

"Yes, I just saw it," She went back to packing my things like it was no big deal.

"Alice, you have to tell me what he has to talk to me about," I whispered to her. I didn't want Edward to hear me. I had to know so I would be prepared. Whatever Edward had to talk to me, couldn't be good. The only time he ever talked to me was when it was important or when he felt like he had to.

Alice laughed at me before pushing me towards the door of her room where I had been keeping my stuff, "No, you'll have to find out for yourself."

I huffed as I moved back in the room and threw the rest of my clothes in a box without even bothering to fold them up. I didn't want to talk to Edward. In fact, I was kind of mad at him at the moment. He had spent the past three weeks ignoring me and now he wanted to talk to me all of a sudden. What was up with that? His mood swings were giving me whiplash. Before I became a vampire, he had been hanging on me like a lost puppy and treating me like a princess, but now he was acting like I had some type of disease that would kill him if he stepped anywhere near me. Even though I was angry with him, though, I couldn't make myself stop thinking about him or wishing that he was around. I was hopeless.

"Bella," Edward stuck his head in the doorway, looking as beautiful as always. "Can I speak with you for a moment?"

I looked at Alice, mad that she wouldn't tell me what he wanted to talk about, and she just smirked at me. I turned my head back towards Edward and coldly responded to him. If he had to talk to me about something, I would listen to him, but I would not like it. "Sure."

Edward led me outside into the backyard which was the only place you could get privacy in a house full of vampires. It was awkward because I wasn't sure what to say and Edward didn't seem to anxious to say anything at all so we just sat in an uncomfortable silence for what felt like forever. The silence was unnerving. I had never felt this awkward around Edward before. I had to say something before I went crazy.

"Edward…"I started, but he held up his hand as if to stop me from talking.

"Listen to me, Bella," His velvet voice said smoothly. "I need to talk to you about something."

I nodded. "About what?"

"About us," If my heart could still beat it would be going about a million miles a minute. Was there an _us_? I had been under the impression that there wasn't. "I know that we haven't been close lately, but I thought you should know why things have been…strained between us. You deserve to know."

"Edward, I know you didn't want me to become a vampire. I heard you say it while we were in the ballet studio," I shot out. My heart dropped as I said these words. It hurt me to say them.

Edward sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. He seemed to be having a hard time keeping his train of thought and figuring out what he was going to say. I had never seen him struggle for words like this. "I didn't want you to have to live like this."

"You didn't want me to be one of you? To be with you forever?" It killed me to hear it coming straight from him. As long as I had never heard him say it directly towards me, I could just act like he hadn't said it, but now, I couldn't. I couldn't live in denial forever.

"No, no," Edward said frantically. "It's not that—"

"Then what was it, Edward?" I interrupted him before he had a chance to explain. All the pent up anger I had been feeling towards him for ignoring me the past few weeks was exploding inside of me. "You sure sounded like you didn't want me here when you were talking to Rosalie and the rest of your family in the ballet studio."

Edward ran a hand through his perfect bronze hair and sighed. "It is not what you think."

"It's not what I think? _Not what I think?_ I'm pretty sure I know what I heard, and that was you wanting me to die instead of being one of you," I was practically yelling at him now. "Don't you understand? If you hadn't changed me, I would have died."

"Bella, you don't know what you're talking about," He said after I had finished my rant. He was deathly silent for a moment. I had never seen him this mad before, especially not at me. He paused another moment before continuing. "It wasn't that I wanted you to die, it was that I wanted you to live. You tell me that you would have died if you hadn't been changed, well, look at yourself, Bella, you are dead! The way we are—this existence—isn't that wonderful, glorious thing you've imagined it to be. It isn't life. You'll realize that one day when all the people you know, the ones you love start dying. It isn't natural. You should have never had to go through any of this; we should have just left you alone."

"Don't say that," I said quietly. If I could cry, I would have started a long time ago. "Don't say that, Edward."

He stared off into the trees, not saying anything back. The expression on his face was unreadable. I couldn't understand why he had dragged me out here just to tell me he regretted ever meeting me. It was so unlike Edward. It was almost cruel.

"Why did you do it, then?" I asked after minutes of silence. "Why did you change me instead of letting me die?"

"I didn't," He looked me straight in the eye. "Rosalie did."

"What?" I was taken aback at his words. Why had no one told me Rosalie had been the one to change me? I had always just assumed it had been Edward.

"When Carlisle told us that we only had minutes to make a decision…Rosalie had already made hers. She got to you before I had a chance to stop her," He looked away from me, pain showing clearly on his face.

I laid my hand on his shoulder. My anger towards him had subsided now, but I was still hurt by the way he felt. I could see where he was coming from, though. "There is nothing we can do about it now. I am a vampire. We can't change that."

"You're right," He sighed. I was surprised that he had agreed with me. I had been expecting him to fight it some more. "Bella, I want you to understand that I am happy that you're with us now. I really am. I just wish that you had been able to stay human and live your life like the rest of us weren't able to."

Edward's topaz eyes connected with my red ones for a split second. I was a little self-conscious about them so I directed my gaze towards the ground. Before I could realize it, Edward's hand had rested under my chin and gently forced my face up to look at him.

"You are so beautiful," He breathed and let his hand trail down my exposed neck. I felt my dead heart skip a beat.

"I love you," The words slipped out of my mouth as Edward closed in the gap between us.

"You love me?" He leaned away from me slightly and a small smile appeared on his face.

"I do," It had taken me months to figure out my feelings for Edward, but now I was finally ready to talk about them. I didn't care if he didn't love me; I just had to tell him. After everything we had been through, I just knew that I had to get it out before it exploded within me.

Edward leaned back in towards me. "You have no idea how long I've wanted to hear that."

Suddenly, Edward's lips were on mine, and as cheesy as it sounds, while Edward kissed me, it felt as if the whole world had stopped turning, like we were the only thing that mattered. I was breathing hard by the time Edward had stopped kissing me. He rested his cool forehead on mine.

"I love you, too, Bella Swan, and I have since the day I met you."

* * *

As much a I never wanted to leave Edward's side again, I had something to clear up before we left Forks. I couldn't just leave this situation hanging on the racks until it cleared up by itself. I had to take matters into my own hands, and make things right by myself. It was the right thing to do.

"Rosalie, can I speak to you for a minute?" I knocked on her bedroom door. She was inside packing for our move to Rochester, her former home.

"Sure, come in," She called. I entered the room quietly. "What did you want to talk to me about?"

"I wanted to talk to you about why you changed me."

"I had a feeling you would want to talk to me about it one day," She sat down on her bed and cleared off a spot for me beside her on the bed. "So he told you, didn't he?"

I nodded. "I always thought he had been the one to change me. That's what everyone led me to believe."

"I think that's what everyone would like to think happened," She told me.

"Why do you say that?" I wondered. She seemed a little upset, but I wasn't really sure. Rosalie, like Edward, was pretty good a hiding her feelings when she wanted to.

"The whole plan all along was that Edward was going to change you when he was ready, well, it was for all of us but Edward," She shrugged, her beautiful blonde hair flowing off her shoulders and down her back. "We had always thought that Edward, when he actually realized that you would die if you stayed human, would turn you, but he was a lot more resolute in his plan than the rest of us thought he would be. He was determined that you would stay human, and that we would just be around as long as you lived. He had never thought something like this would happen, nor did the rest of us."

"He wouldn't have done it," I already knew what she was getting at. If it had been up to Edward, I would have died that night.

Rosalie didn't say anything, but she confirmed it with a slight nod of her head. "I know that you're probably wondering why I did it after these past couple of months of me being a complete bitch to you. You have to understand, Bella, that I was doing it to protect my family. When you found out about us, we still weren't sure whether you would become one of us or not."

"But I thought Alice had seen it?" Alice had specifically told me that she saw me becoming one of them. She had been sure of it.

"Alice swore that she was positive of you becoming part of our family, but her visions change. You know that," Rosalie explained. "Even though Alice saw it multiple times, she also saw visions of you going to college and getting married and having kids."

This was all new information for me. I had thought this whole time that I would become a vampire no matter what. It was a shock that my future was as certain as I thought it had been.

"I'm ashamed to say that I didn't think you were trustworthy enough to know our secret," Rosalie hung her head. I had never seen her looking so dejected. She was normally so sure of herself and somewhat arrogant.

"Rose, I forgive you," I put my hand on her shoulder. "You were just trying to protect your family. I would have done the same thing."

She looked at me a smiled slightly before she continued. "I changed you because you are a part of our family, Bella. You have been since we first met you. You've been the missing part of our family, and now that we have finally found you, we couldn't lose you."

"So, are we friends again?" I said lightly. It felt good to be able to talk to her again. She had been one of my best friends, and I had missed her for a long time.

"We're more than friends, Bella," She wrapped her arms around me. "We are sisters now."

My story was coming to a close now. I had finally become a vampire, a Cullen, and now I was with Edward, the love of my life, and I had reunited with Rosalie, one of my best friends. I was happy, and that was all that mattered.

* * *

Look for the sequel within the next couple of weeks and tell me what you think about the last chapter and the idea I have for the sequel. If there is anything you want to see in the next story, just tell me and I'll see what I can do.


	13. AN

AUTHOR'S NOTE FROM VI908:

Hey, guys! I hadn't really thought about doing this until now, but I just wanted to let all the fans of _Save the Last Dance_ know that my new story and sequel, _Dancing Through Life_, is up and I'm posting chapters pretty frequently. It's a lot different than _Save the Last Dance _to warn you all because it deals a lot with the pack and La Push and the main character, Caroline, is an OC.

I hope you all will go and read and review _Dancing Through Life _if you already haven't! I've really become attached to these two stories (STLD and DTL) and I hope that each and everyone of you enjoys them as much as I do because that is my sole purpose in writing: for people to get enjoyment out of my writing. All of your positive feedback through out STLD was so great and I thank each and everyone of you for reading and reviewing! If I could give you all huge bear hugs, I definitely would.

I also have another story out for Harry Potter called _Liar_. For right now, it's taking a backseat to DLT until I have that finished (which it should be by the end of the summer), but if any of you guys are into Draco Malfoy and secrets, then you might like my new story. Enough, PR, I just wanted to make sure you all knew about _Dancing Through Life_ and to thank you for all of your support!

Love always,

Vi


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